


I Can't Breathe

by ThatOneTyGuy



Category: Naruto
Genre: All the relationships listed above are friendships., Angst/Comfort, Except the Minato and Naruto one, FRIENDS!!!, Getting transferred to a child body, Minato is revived AU, No new romantic relationships!!!, Orochimaru shenanigans, Other, Weird Plot Shit, and sort of father son relationship with jiraiya and minato NO NEW ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS YA FOOLS, that's a father and son relationship lol, time limit life., tumblr: witchy-fandom-poutine, yes weird shit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-21
Updated: 2018-10-16
Packaged: 2019-07-15 07:08:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 40,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16058072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatOneTyGuy/pseuds/ThatOneTyGuy
Summary: One day I wish thatI won't keep hiding the truthBut I'm just a fool,Oh I'm such a fool..Orochimaru accidentally fully revived Minato somehow when he tried to reanimate him using Edo Tensei during the Chunin exams. Chaos ensues.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First chapter, it's kinda short. Since I was writing up the second chapter up at school, I'll probably post it soon!! First Naruto fan-fiction EVER! I haven't been able to get this idea out of my head for like. EVER! Have fun.

     It was dark, battling in the Shinigami’s stomach. How long has it been since he sealed the Kyuubi here in this never-ending hell with him?

He doesn’t know.

Things such as his name and identity are starting to fade from his mind, and he quickly tries to bring them back to himself when there was a sudden pause in the battle. What had happened? A few moments later, he realized why the Kyuubi hasn’t attacked again yet. A light shines from far above, one that wasn’t there before. It’s a blinding light to him. Where did it come from? What is it? What sort of things will happen to him now? The questions flash through his mind, but he isn’t getting any answers.

Another couple of moments later, everything goes white.


	2. Chapter 2

     The first thing he noticed after that sudden flash of light was pain. It seemed to be everywhere, yet nowhere, but was concentrated around his stomach where the seal was. The second thing he noticed was the sounds around him, the sounds of buildings being destroyed and footsteps. The last sense that seemed to reawaken after that long period in the Shinigami’s stomach was his sight.

He could barely believe what he saw.

He was at some form of memorial, and on the ground in Konoha. How did he get back? He stays on the rough, dusty ground for a little longer, finally noticing the enormous three-headed snake smash open the gate. Shocked, he quickly manages to get to his feet, but something just feels so _wrong_.

He isn’t in his original body. He’s in the body of a child.

He nearly collapses on the floor at that point, because there is too much to take in. At least he still has the seal on him, at least something stayed the same. He quickly looks around for some water and looks at his reflection. He looks the same as he did when he just graduated from the Academy. Something is also limiting his chakra, and he quickly realizes that he probably won’t be able to make a Rasengan like this without a little bit of pain. If the current situation causes him to use it, then he can deal with a little bit of pain. He doesn’t know how long it has been since that fateful night, and it doesn’t look like he is going to get answers. He focuses on the water again, seeing the source of the footsteps. A jonin from the Village Hidden in the Sand. What had happened to the alliance he had made? What had happened to cause this? He doesn’t think they are here for a diplomatic mission, or to help the leaf.

He waits for the jonin to get closer, then moves quickly into a tree behind the jonin. Unsurprisingly, the jonin looks confused. They probably expected an unaware Academy student that was an easy target. “I know you are not from this village, but can you answer some questions for me?” He calls out, finally remembering the last few bits of information that seemed to elude him when he first got out of the Shinigami’s stomach. His name and his identity, who he was. He was Namikaze Minato of the Hidden Leaf, the Yellow Flash and the Fourth Hokage. All the past things that have happened just seem to rush back to him, and he was unprepared for this sudden assault of information. How long has it been since those days?

 “I do not answer to you, bratling,” The sand jonin replies. Minato instantly knows he looks a little bit irritated despite the smile on his face, and he thinks a for a moment.

 “Then I guess I won’t linger here any longer,” he murmurs, then as fast as he can in this form, went to the top of the wall surrounding the Leaf Village. It has changed so much, yet so little. And it’s being attacked by both ninja from the Sand Village and from a village he does not recognize. He looks around, examining the area and quickly sees a large purple barrier on a building at one of the arenas. He quickly goes toward it, not caring about his current form and a way to fix it. He might not have the time to.

>|<          >|<          >|<

     It’s absolute chaos. Leaf ninja fighting sand ninja, and he finally reaches the barrier with only a few interruptions. He recognizes some of the Anbu waiting outside the barrier from his hokage days, and they haven’t seemed to notice him yet as they are too focused on what is happening inside the barrier. That is perfectly fine with Minato, as he doesn’t really know how he would react to any sort of social interaction or conversation with all the things that have seemed to just happen. He looks inside the barrier, utterly unprepared for what he saw.

It was the first and second hokages with Orochimaru, while Lord Third was fighting them. He sees the hokage hat on the ground, and quickly forms an idea. It might not be the best idea but knowing Lord Third he might need a tiny bit of help. No one likes to fight their teachers or kill them in a sort of sense, but Orochimaru is an obvious exception. He quickly uses his chakra, teleporting to the hokage hat and shocking literally everyone in the general area. He uses this precious time to get the quickly advancing first and second hokages away from Lord Third. “Who the hell is that?” one of the Anbu Minato doesn’t recognize says, trying to figure out what Minato just did.

 “I do not know, but he looks like he just barely got out of the Academy!” another Anbu Minato doesn’t know replies. Lord Third just looks at Minato for a moment, completely shocked. It doesn’t surprise Minato, as he looks like he is just some kid that happened to get in the barrier.

 “How did you get into this barrier, child?” Orochimaru says, a little angry that it seemed that some random kid who just got out of the Academy got through his barrier ninjutsu. So, it seems that Orochimaru finally defected. Minato feels that he should’ve dealt with him while he was still a hokage, but because of the Kyuubi suddenly appearing he didn’t really have a choice in the matter.

 “Wouldn’t you love to know,” Minato replies, with a small smile on his face. Going into the barrier probably wasn’t the best choice he could’ve made, and probably shouldn’t have done so. But if any of his old space-time seals are still active, he will be able to easily get out of it. Some of the Anbu quickly jump from the roof, going somewhere else. Minato looks back to his opponents, his smile vanishing. This is going to be a tough battle.

>|<          >|<          >|<

     Kakashi quickly dodges a wind-style ninjutsu, with a quick worried glance towards the barrier. This wasn’t how this exam was supposed to go. “Kakashi! I have urgent news for you!” an Anbu says, and Kakashi turned to them after knocking out another sound ninja.

 “What is the news?” Kakashi calmly asked, not even stopping for a second. Urgent news in this situation? They were all already in a terrible situation, what could be worse?

 “Some kid that looks like he just got out of the Academy got into Orochimaru’s barrier and knocked the first and second hokages back!” the Anbu replies, quickly dodging a sound ninja that is currently trying to learn how to fly without the use of ninjutsu or taijutsu.

Oh. Of course. Kakashi mentally curses at himself for jinxing himself like this, but how would this even happen? He can’t figure out a way to get into the barrier himself. “Do you have any idea how this happened?” Kakashi replies, trying to stay calm. A freaking kid is out there fighting Orochimaru, the first hokage, and the second hokage all at once! Even though Lord Third is there, he can’t divide his attention to make sure some stupid kid doesn’t die.

 “We do not know; any evidence was covered up by Lord First’s Wood Release jutsu. Anbu Cat said that they saw the kid appear above the hokage’s outfit,” the Anbu says and immediately takes a kunai out from a sound ninja’s hands and proceeds to kill the enemy ninja with their own weapon. How would someone be able to get into that barrier? You can’t just walk into it. That will be a question for later, now is time for something else.

 “Alright, you should go help stop the invasion,” Kakashi replies, with a note of finality. It’ll help overall if the Anbu aren’t just concentrated in one area, there is too many enemy ninjas about for concentrating in one place to be effective.

 “Yes sir!” The Anbu replies, before leaving the area in a flash. Kakashi takes out a good number of sound and sand ninja before turning to Sakura, who is trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

 “Sakura! Listen carefully, because you are about to have a new mission. It’s an A-rank, the first since the land of waves!” Kakashi says, while turning towards Sakura slightly. She quickly gets up slightly and nods, indicating that she is listening. “Sasuke has run after Gaara and a couple other sand ninja. After releasing the genjutsu on Shikamaru and Naruto, go after him and bring him back,” Kakashi says quickly, continuing the fight against the other sound ninja.

 “Why shouldn’t we bring all the people we can? Why can’t Into and Choji come along?” Sakura says suddenly, looking towards Kakashi again while crawling over to Naruto and Shikamaru so she isn’t noticed by the sound and sand ninja.

 “You will be able to go faster and will be able to hide easier in a team of four. You learned about the importance of small teams in the Academy, right?” Kakashi replies, parrying a sword with his kunai then throwing the sound ninja out into the arena. The ninja just seem to keep coming, no matter what. Suddenly, a sound ninja goes after Sakura, but Gai quickly knocks the sound ninja into the wall before Sakura can be hurt.

 “Fast,” The sound ninja chokes out with a little bit of blood staining the mask covering his mouth.

 “Strong, too,” Gai agrees, then kicks the ninja, making a hole in the wall.

 “Who is going to be the fourth member of our team, Kakashi-sensei?” Sakura calls out, after reaching Naruto and Shikamaru. Kakashi quickly takes out a scroll from a pocket on his standard jonin jacket and summons a dog that looks like a pug.

 “Pakkun will guide you, Shikamaru, and Naruto to Sasuke,” Kakashi says before ducking a sand ninja that attacked where he was only a moment ago.

 “You don’t mean that this little doggy is going to be the fourth member of our team, Kakashi-sensei?” Sakura asks, looking a little bit confused. Pakkun walks up to Sakura, disgruntled.

 “You may think I’m just a cute little doggy, but I’m not. Now let's get going.” Sakura looks so confused for a moment but doesn’t question it anymore. Kakashi looks somewhat exasperated by this but continues fighting. Sakura stares at Pakkun again for a moment before releasing the genjutsu on Naruto. However, right before she releases the genjutsu on Shikamaru, then Shikamaru twitches.

 “So, you were awake this whole time, Shikamaru,” Sakura says, sounding a bit disappointed. She knows Shikamaru is lazy, but never to this extent that he would purposely fake being caught in genjutsu to get out of it. After a little bit, Naruto wakes up and just lays down on the ground for a little bit, trying to piece together what is going on. Pakkun simply walks over and bites Shikamaru’s leg to stop his subterfuge.

 “AGHH! GET THIS STUPID DOG OFF ME!” Shikamaru yells out, trying to throw Pakkun off his leg by just moving it. It does not work.

 “So, you do know how to release genjutsu,” Sakura says, irritated. She had better things to do than argue with a lazy guy. After a little bit, Naruto gets up.

 “What’s going on? Where did Sasuke and Gaara go? Why did I somehow fall asleep?” Naruto says quickly, firing off question after question. Naruto isn’t known for waiting, anyway.

 “We are on a mission to track Sasuke. I’ll tell you the details on the way!” Sakura replies quickly, grabbing Naruto and going out the hole while Naruto yelled in protest.

 “Ugh, what a drag!” Shikamaru says before jumping out of the hole with Pakkun to join the mission.

>|<          >|<          >|<

     Now the battle is nothing more than a staring contest between Minato, Orochimaru, and Lord Third, who is also known as Sarutobi. The silence is quickly broken by the first hokage, who goes forward and summons a forest into existence with his Wood Release ninjutsu. Minato jumps back, but feels he is too slow as he is not used to this new form and it’s jarring to go from one form in a span of a millisecond. Especially if you were battling with your original one for what was supposed to be eternity. Who could get used to it quickly anyway? It had all been too sudden. “How did you get in here? I developed this barrier ninjutsu myself,” Orochimaru says, disgruntled. Minato still had a lot of questions, but this wasn’t the place to ask them.

 “Old seals seem to hold up well if you make them well enough,” Minato replies, a small but grim smile on his face. He then realizes to the full extent how ridiculous this is. A random kid that literally no one knew just showed up, got into a barrier that even the third hokage couldn’t get out of, then knocked the first AND second hokage back to protect the third. He kind of feels like laughing, but this is not the right situation to do so. Orochimaru didn't seem to see the hidden message behind Minato's words, but Sarutobi did.

 "How?" Sarutobi whispers.

 "I have absolutely no idea," Minato admits shamelessly. How is he supposed to know? One second, he was fighting the Kyuubi in the stomach of the Shinigami and then another second, he's on the ground next to a memorial. He literally just appeared without a discernable reason why. No answers are being given; just more and more questions.

 "It does not matter. Today will be the last day both you and Konoha survive, Sarutobi sensei!" Orochimaru says, and the first and second hokages go forward. Orochimaru opens his mouth, and somehow takes a sword out of it. Minato frowns, he isn't used to this body, has none of his signature kunai, and his chakra is at a set limit. He was at a severe disadvantage here, and that should've been apparent from the very start. But he was worried back then, so he rushed to the barrier without even thinking of getting any sort of tools. He quickly looks at Sarutobi, who made two shadow clones. Sarutobi starts using the hand signs for that accursed sealing jutsu, and Minato just looks at Sarutobi, not wanting to believe what he is seeing.

 "Lord Third, you don't mean to use that jutsu, do you?" Minato says quickly, obviously worried and concerned. He wants a reasonable explanation for this, as he doesn’t want Sarutobi to go through that torment in the Shinigami’s stomach. It was worse than anyone could ever imagine, you cannot describe the pain and hopelessness of being locked into a never-ending battle in the Death God’s stomach with words.

 “I do mean to. You know what I am going to do, right?” Sarutobi murmurs, finishing the hand signs to do the Reaper Death Seal jutsu. Minato used it to seal the Kyuubi for who knows how long ago. Well, probably everyone except him to be honest.

 “Yes. It will be hard for you to achieve what you are planning to do, though,” Minato replies sadly, knowing that Sarutobi can’t back out of the sealing jutsu now.

 “I know,” Sarutobi says before the second hokage suddenly casts the Eternal Darkness genjutsu, and Sarutobi is out of sight. Minato feels absolutely crushed, scared.

Afraid.

He doesn’t know if he can even mentally get through being in such a pitch-black darkness again, and memories just prick at his mind like shards of glass.

Fighting the Kyuubi in the stomach of the Shinigami.

Saving the village but giving his son a lifetime of abandonment and pain and not saving his wife.

Too many decisions that had to be made that shouldn’t have to be made but were made anyway.

     Minato dodges from a sudden attack, nearly getting hit. He doesn’t know where it’s coming from either. Suddenly, the darkness vanishes, and the two clones have grabbed the first and second hokages, while the actual Sarutobi has grabbed Orochimaru, and his sword was thrown away. Minato gets on his knees for a moment, trying to recover mentally. He didn’t expect to be put into darkness again, and he didn’t like it at all. It was terrifying, pressing against him like a suffocating weight.

He doesn’t think he could survive another minute in that terrible darkness.

Minato looks over to Orochimaru and Sarutobi, and just the act of moving around a lot along with teleporting from place to place so he doesn’t get hit has drained his severely limited chakra. This isn’t good, he can barely get up now. He feels pathetic. Something so common, something that is always everywhere, scares him so much that he can barely get up? Pathetic, pathetic.

But he doesn’t have the time to beat himself up over fearing one little thing.

 “What is this jutsu?! What are you doing to me?!” Orochimaru yells, obviously not happy about this situation. Minato smiles a little bit, surprised he can even do it at all. It’s still a grim smile all the same.

 “It’s a jutsu that trades the soul of the caster for the effectiveness of the jutsu. The soul of both sealer and sealed are devoured by the Shinigami and are entwined in never-ending hate, and battle in the stomach of the Shinigami for all eternity,” Sarutobi says, shaking at the effort of trying to pull out Orochimaru’s soul. His age has finally caught up to him, and he doesn’t have the strength to pull out Orochimaru’s soul. Minato realizes this and looks at the two of them in despair.

It’s not going to work. He doesn’t want that fate for Sarutobi. It’s not something he deserves.

 “Lord Third!” Minato calls out, trying to move enough to get close to make sure Orochimaru doesn’t do anything else to stop the jutsu and reduce it’s already lowered effectiveness.

 “Die, old man!” Orochimaru yells out, starting to make the previously discarded sword move towards Sarutobi. No, this can’t be happening. What had gone wrong? No. Move. MOVE.

**YOU HAVE TO MOVE!**

     Minato finally manages to move, going in front of the sword right before it hits Sarutobi.

But it goes right through this shoulder, without a wound, like that part of him was invisible.

 “What? I’m..” Minato says, before collapsing to the ground coughing. Orochimaru has absolutely no idea what's going on, but he is focusing too much on killing Sarutobi to realize what just happened. He feels hopeless. He can’t help Sarutobi like this, he is too weak. But he tries grabbing the sword and bringing it back despite the enormous pain it brings in his hands.

 “Child, what are you trying to do? You can’t stop it,” Orochimaru says, with a small smile but a face full of agony. Minato winces as he tries to hold the sword back.

 “But I can try,” Minato continues holding the sword. He can’t give up yet, he still has some stamina to try and save Sarutobi enough time to seal Orochimaru. He feels that his chakra limit has increased since he used a good portion of chakra during the battle, just trying to dodge. He concentrates the last few bits of it into his hands, trying with all his might to yank it back at least a couple of inches. Anything could help Lord Third.

Then after a final pull of Orochimaru, his hand slips. It was slick with blood, and his hands full of pain.

 “ **NO!** ” Minato cries out, trying to grab the sword again.

But it’s too late. The sword is already through Sarutobi, and there is nothing Minato can do except watch in complete agony.

 “I am not able to pull out your entire soul, but I will take your jutsu down with me!” Sarutobi says, and even though Minato can’t see it with his own eyes, he knows that Sarutobi is pulling out the arms of Orochimaru’s soul.

The Shinigami cuts the soul, and the seal is made.

 “Now you can use neither of your arms, and you can no longer weave signs, therefore you no longer posess ninjustu,” Sarutobi murmurs, his eyes starting to close.

 “NO! You old dotard, give me back my arms!” Orochimaru cries out, as his arms lay to the side of his body now useless and dead. “GIVE BACK MY ARMS!”

 “Orochimaru, you fool... It’s unfortunate that we can’t leave together, but my disciple... Let’s meet in the other world someday,” Sarutobi says quietly, starting to die.

 “How dare you! How dare you take away my jutsu!” Orochimaru says, and Minato’s vision is starting to fade. Everything is turning black. Is he being consumed again by that terrifying darkness? He tries to stay awake the best he can.

He doesn’t want to go back. He wouldn’t survive, and Sarutobi is now dead.

Minato leans to the side, finally letting go of Orochimaru who is yelling at Sarutobi despite Sarutobi being dead. His vision is blurring. This isn’t the end. Can't be the end. He refuses.

 

He blacks out, even though he was still trying to keep that terrifying darkness from consuming him.

 

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

     The beeping of machines in the background slowly awakened him all on their own, but the morning light from the windows woke him up much faster. He quickly realizes his hands are bandaged from the previous fight and tries to clear his head. So much had happened in such a short amount of time, and he is reeling from being taken who knows how many years forward from the days he was... Alive. He feels uncomfortable wording it that way, even though it’s correct. It reminds him of that terrible time in the Shinigami’s stomach, but that is not something one would easily forget. To fulfill some obscure sense of security he makes sure he is somehow actually solid and there, not a ghost. Despite everything, it’s hard to believe he’s there. He knows he will eventually be questioned on who he is because in the eyes of everyone else he is just a random kid that showed up. He just hopes they don’t send Jiraiya, because that would probably go poorly. He doesn’t know how long he will stay this way, and he doesn’t want to see Jiraiya, even though it would make him so happy but then he would have to take that away from him.

It would be too cruel.

He turns his head towards the door, a little surprised. Someone had visited him? Or for questioning. He quickly turns his head away from them, a little bit upset.

Of course, it was Kakashi. His luck seemed to be holding up incredibly well.

 “Kid, I don’t know who you are or how you got into Orochimaru’s barrier. Care to enlighten me?” Kakashi says, a steely note to his voice. Didn’t he recognize that voice from so long ago? He liked that some things were the same at least.

 “But can you answer a question I’ve had for a while first?” Minato says, but it’s better said as a murmur. He’s still trying to get all the information and what happened through his head. He got brought back from the dead somehow, helped Lord Third, then Lord Third died. So much to process, and probably not enough time. Who knows how long he will stay like this?

Is his life force limited, and slowly decreasing?

 “Depends on the question,” Kakashi replies. Minato thought as much.

 “How long has it been since...” Minato struggles to get the words out for a moment. “Kyuubi attacked?” He finishes and knows that question probably sounds the farthest from what Kakashi expected to hear. He probably expected something like asking his name, but since Minato already knew it that wasn’t a problem.

 “Twelve years,” Kakashi says, looking surprised from that question. Minato knows he looks shocked, but he can’t really hide it. Twelve years? He spent twelve years fighting the Kyuubi in the Shinigami’s stomach? Not a good way to spend those years. He hopes Naruto is alright at least, that would take a huge weight off him. “Now, how did you get into the barrier?” Kakashi says.

     Um. He REALLY doesn’t want to answer this and is trying to figure out a good way to say it. But right after that, he just starts coughing and he has no idea why. Kakashi is a little bit shocked by this, and instantly stops trying to push for an answer, while Minato just sits in the hospital bed coughing. A little bit later, he finally stops. That was painful and completely unexpected. Maybe he actually does have a time limit to be here. Maybe if he can find her, Tsunade can help? “I do not really want to answer that question,” Minato replies, his voice a little hoarse but he ignores it.

 “Why not?” Kakashi asks. He shouldn’t have expected to get out of being questioned easily, but you always can hope. Minato decides this is the time to try and get out of the bed, so he does so. Holding the railings with bandaged hands hurts a bit though, and he realizes he also has a couple more wounds on various other parts of his body. “You should lay back down, the nurses are going to yell at me if they see you walking around,” Kakashi says, a little disgruntled. Kakashi, being ordered around by nurses?

Apparently, it’s more likely than what Minato would think.

 “Then it’s DEFINITELY worth it,” Minato absolutely wants to see this happen, so one moment Kakashi is staring at him like he is about to jump out the window, and then the next moment Minato is in the hall going a bit too slowly for his tastes. He isn’t trying to be fast though.

 “GET BACK HERE!” Kakashi yells out, running after Minato. He easily lets him catch up, then smiles at Kakashi then teleports to one of his old seals. It’s right on top of the hokage monument, and even though he would give a lot to see Kakashi being yelled at, now is not the time. He should probably be in a disguise or something, especially because when he sees Jiraiya he doesn’t want to hurt him in an emotional way. But it might have to come to that. Minato transforms into a kid with straight brown hair, and he immediately doesn’t like it because it’s basically a waste of chakra. Then he gets an idea. He transforms back to normal, then builds up his chakra.

And transforms into his original self.

     His period of victory is short lived, because after a couple of moments he falls to his knees coughing like he just drank Jiraiya’s poorly made tea. The only reason he would like to have any is for nostalgia purposes, but now is not the time. He gets up and transforms back into the previous disguise and looks around and sees a toad. Yup, that’s Jiraiya alright. Minato goes to Jiraiya but is just out of sight. He knows Jiraiya can probably sense him in another fashion, but he isn’t bothered by that right now. He looks at the kid Jiraiya is talking to.

It’s his son, Naruto. Minato should’ve known that Jiraiya would teach him, he is Naruto’s godfather after all. But does Jiraiya even know that? Jiraiya is an irresponsible godfather, but Minato trusts him. Since he appeared late to the conversation and isn’t even supposed to be there in the first place, he just listens to the conversation in the middle of it.

 “— it can’t be helped... Oh, well... I know jutsu more amazing than Chidori but...” Jiraiya says, looking to the side. Minato stills for a second, Jiraiya is bribing his son to come with him on a trip with jutsu? More powerful than Chidori? He can only think of one, does Jiraiya mean to teach him that technique? “It can’t be helped... Maybe I’ll take Sasuke?” Jiraiya continues, looking towards Naruto slightly. Naruto instantly dashes in front of Jiraiya, looking incredibly excited.

 “OF COURSE, I’LL GO!” Naruto yells out, looking a bit too excited. He takes over Kushina. He sure looks like Minato, but that’s as far as the resemblance goes. He decides to follow the pair, even though he knows that he will be caught eventually. His hope is that he is caught or recognized when they are too far away from the village for it to matter. “I’ll go pack my bags right away!” Naruto says, quickly dashing to what Minato can only guess is his apartment. Minato nearly laughs, he reminds him so much of Kushina. But it’s still painful to make that revelation, with her not with him. Jiraiya looks back at Naruto dashing to the apartment with a nearly unexplainable expression on his face, questioning what just happened. He can change his mind in a blink of an eye, it seems. “Pervy sage, don’t move!!” Naruto yells out, now a farther distance away. Minato chokes a little bit from behind a building. He’ll have to remember that one. Jiraiya quickly turns to the sound, and Minato quickly becomes the most silent and most still he has ever been, because he really doesn’t want to be caught while he is still in the village. It'd be pretty pathetic, to be honest.

 “I’ll be darned... He’s a really cute kid,” Jiraiya says, rubbing his head. Jiraiya goes to the village’s west gate and waits for Naruto, while Minato waits on a nearby building.

     An hour or so later, Naruto appears with the biggest backpack Minato has ever seen, and it’s completely full. Doesn’t he know the phrase ‘packing light’? He watches Naruto quickly take out nearly all of the stuff in the bag after Jiraiya stares at the enormous backpack for more than ten seconds.

Now they are off to other places, and Minato doesn’t know exactly where.

But he will follow.

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> btw im going back through the chapters and i just saw 'saiding' so im kinda dying inside and rechecking everything

     It has been over two hours since Jiraiya and Naruto have left the village, and Minato continues following them. He hopes that he doesn’t eventually give away his position by coughing, but he can only hope for a little bit. Only a couple seconds later, he starts coughing and nearly falls out of the tree he is in. He knows he is probably screwed and that he is caught now, because Jiraiya looks at his exact tree curiously. He just can’t stop coughing, and when he finally does he realizes he is now coughing up blood. Not exactly the best thing to see. A couple moments later, somehow completely exhausted in the span of two minutes, he falls out of the tree onto not the softest ground. He’s surprised his transformation holds up. “Hey Pervy Sage, who is that kid following us?” Naruto says curiously, looking down at Minato and poking him. Naruto acts so much like Kushina, it fills Minato with a little bit of pain because he knows he won’t be able to see Kushina. She won’t be able to come back the way he did.

 “I have absolutely no idea. What’s your name, kid?” Jiraiya asks, and Minato turns over to face him.

It’s so hard to keep the tears out of his eyes. He never thought he would see him again.

 “Uh Pervy Sage, what’s wrong with him?” Naruto asks, looking at Minato then back to Pervy Sage. Minato quickly realizes he isn’t as good as hiding things as he thinks and gets into a sitting position.

 “Naruto, that’s rude,” Jiraiya grumbles. No changes at all, and that’s refreshing. Too much has changed, and he doesn’t like it at all. Minato tries to think of a possible solution out of this, but because he is constantly keeping up that transformation the only thing he can really do is stand, walk, and talk. He doesn’t like that very much, but the chakra limit is not helping him out. “But seriously, who are you kid? Did anyone send you with us, Kakashi maybe?” Jiraiya says, looking at Minato curiously.

 “The last time I saw Kakashi was him yelling at me to go back into the hospital bed,” Minato says, with a small laugh. “He says he would get yelled at by the nurses if I didn’t stay, and that was worth leaving.” Minato smiles a little bit, he will probably cherish that memory for a long time if he can even stay here long enough.

 “Kakashi-sensei, being yelled at by a nurse? That doesn’t sound much like him,” Naruto says, looking curiously at the sky. Minato feels a little bit better knowing that Kakashi was Naruto’s previous teacher, because Kakashi is also someone he trusts. Back when he was (He tries to avoid the word, but can’t find another one) alive, he and Kakashi sort of had a father and son relationship after Kakashi’s real father died.

 “The last time Kakashi was yelled at was over twelve years ago, by Minato. I think it was because he started a fire in Minato’s house because he really wanted to try and cook for some reason,” Jiraiya says thoughtfully, looking towards Naruto. Minato remembers that of course, he was both panicked and terrified because he thought the house would burn down and that was the last thing he needed at that time. He feels a little bit of pain from the memory as well though, because he is reminded of the people he has lost.

But at least Jiraiya and Kakashi are still here, right?

     Minato gets up with concealed difficulty, as he is very exhausted and just fell out of a tree. “I followed you both because I really didn’t have anything better to do and being yelled at by Kakashi is not a memory I want to keep with me,” Minato says, looking a little bit guilty and having a hand on the back of his head like usual when he feels awkward. He quickly realizes this and stops, but he knows Jiraiya is probably questioning it by now. “So, who or what are you two looking for?” He tilts his head to the side, thinking. He probably could’ve worded that better.

 “Pervy sage we are looking for a beautiful woman that’s about his age, but because he said that the age of the beauty is about his, said woman might be less than he thinks,” Naruto says, touching his chin thoughtfully. Minato instantly knows exactly who they are looking for. Because Lord Third died, they want Tsunade to be the fifth hokage. He might be able to get an answer out of Tsunade how he is alive and how he can stay here, right? She’s the best medical ninja out there.

 “Ah, Tsunade, right?” Minato says, hoping to confirm his suspicions. Jiraiya looks down at him.

 “Yup, any reason why you are following us?” Jiraiya asks, his eyes narrowing. Minato can understand why he’s suspicious, as many people are probably targeting Naruto right at this minute.

 “I have a personal reason on why I want to reach Tsunade, and I don’t think I would be able to wait for when you bring her back to the village. I also had nothing better to do,” Minato admits, looking from his former teacher to the ground.

 “What’s the reason, come on you gotta tell me!” Naruto says, bouncing up and down a little. Minato quickly looks at Naruto and has a small smile. He reminds him of Kushina so much.

 “I’m afraid I can’t,” Minato replies. “We aren’t going to get anywhere if we just stand here, are we?” Minato really wanted to head off the subject as soon as possible, and he doesn’t know how much time he has left here. He hopes he can at least have enough time to just be with his son a little longer, it was a blessing to him.

 “You’re right! We should get going, right Jiraiya-sensei?” Naruto says, looking up at Jiraiya. Jiraiya nods, taking another look at Minato. Minato feels a little uncomfortable, but he ignores it.

>|<          >|<          >|<

     Jiraiya doesn’t know what to think of that random kid that was following him and Naruto, and really wanted to know what this so-called personal problem was. He isn’t any medical expert, but when you fall out of a tree because you are coughing so badly, there is a problem. It was also obvious the kid was hiding something, and that the kid knew about both he and Naruto, and they have never met. This could be a problem, but he thought he should bring the kid along anyway to keep an eye on him.

 “How’d you get the bandages on your hands?” Naruto asks, curious. He feels a tiny bit bad for the poor kid with Naruto badgering him with many questions. But this kid seems to take it with an almost inhuman patience, and always answers his questions. And Jiraiya can’t detect the lies in them, and when Naruto asks a question the kid doesn’t want to particularly answer, the kid says so.

 “Encounter with a sword, it was not fun,” the kid says, a little bit evasively. Didn’t Kakashi says something about some kid got into Orochimaru’s barrier and helped old man Sarutobi with fighting Orochimaru? Knowing Orochimaru, he always has one of those snake swords with him and Sarutobi was stabbed by a sword. Jiraiya decides to just be blunt, it’ll save time in the long run.

 “You’re the kid who tried to protect the old man, right?” Jiraiya says, and both the kid and Naruto look shocked. “You don’t have the description Kakashi says to me, but no kid in the entire village got hurt or was in the hospital except you and Naruto, and Naruto was already out of the hospital when we started the trip.” The kid looks a bit guilty and look like he is trying to form words in his head.

 “What do you mean, pervy sage? This little kid tried to protect the third hokage? I can’t believe it,” Naruto says, looking doubtful. The kid almost instantly looks annoyed, and that’s the only time he looked annoyed from what Naruto was saysing.

 “I am not a child,” The kid says slowly, carefully spacing out his words like a parent trying to tell a child not to do something says child does every two seconds. Actually, adding up how the kid was acting it was almost like he was trying to be a somewhat parental figure for Naruto, and that is somewhat concerning.

 “Then who are you?” Jiraiya says, bluntly. The kid looks to the side for a moment, trying to think.

 “... When we find her I’ll show you,” the kid says, obviously not comfortable now. Naruto looks confused but doesn’t question it for once.

Hopefully they’ll find Tsunade soon, because he sure as hell wants to know who this kid is.

>|<          >|<          >|<

     He knew Jiraiya would want an answer, but he didn’t think that his former teacher would be so blunt about it. But they had finally arrived at the outpost town that Minato can’t remember the name of, so it’s at least stalled for a little bit longer. They finally arrive at an inn. “Naruto! We will be staying here tonight!” Jiraiya calls out to Naruto, who is staring at a paper lantern that appears to be spinning.

 “Huh? But I can still walk!” Naruto argues. Oh, this isn’t going to go anywhere. Both are as stubborn as a mountain.

 “A disciple should obey his master!” Jiraiya replies, and Minato nearly chokes at that one. The last time Jiraiya says that was when he asked Minato for some money over thirteen years ago. “Kid, are you alright?” He looks quickly at Minato, a little confused. Well then, Minato probably made a sound at that one.

 “I am, just some things never change,” Minato replies, then quickly realizes that probably wasn’t the best thing to says. Oh well, too late now. Jiraiya looks at him for a moment, then goes upstairs.

 “I just want to learn the jutsu!” Naruto says, and Minato knows he looks marginally disappointed. Yup, Jiraiya bribed him with a new jutsu.

 “That’s what’s called a disciple!” Jiraiya responds, kneeling to Naruto’s level and looking him in the eye. This isn’t going anywhere. “Huh?” A woman walks by the entrance to the inn, and Minato sighs. This day is just going amazing. It’s not even evening yet. To his utter dismay, Naruto AND Jiraiya look at the woman with obvious approval. Damn Jiraiya corrupted his son.

 “You both are completely embarrassing,” Minato sighs, knowing that his words are falling on deaf ears as Jiraiya is stunned into insensibility by this random woman.

 “Naruto! Here’s the key to the room. Go to the room ahead of me, practice chakra, train some then go to sleep!” Jiraiya says quickly. Minato looks the most disappointed he has been in a very long time. “Stop looking at me like that, you remind me of whenever a certain one of my disciples became very annoyed with what I was doing!” Jiraiya says to Minato, and that shocks Minato. What? “Ok Naruto, got it?”

 “WHAT?!” Naruto yells out, while holding the key to the room they will be staying in. Oh my god, they are hopeless. “’The adult world is gonna begin from this point on...’ is that the vibe here pervy sage?! That’s not fair!” Naruto says loudly, shaking the key.

 “Give up, you aren’t going to get anywhere. Let’s just go upstairs,” Minato says, absolutely exhausted from all this arguing. Jiraiya is already gone. When they are upstairs, Naruto starts practicing his chakra control.

     “This! Somehow, this always happens when I’m with that pervy sage!” Naruto grumbles, taking Minato’s concentration of the seal he is drawing onto a scroll with some ink. He took it from Jiraiya at some point, and apparently Jiraiya never noticed. He wanted to get more of his signature kunai, but you don’t just find his kunai randomly in the world. “Hey hey, what’re you making?” Naruto asks him.

 “It’s a sort of summoning jutsu,” Minato says, not wanting to explain it all the way. It could give him away if Naruto tells Jiraiya. At this point, it just looks like Naruto is wasting his chakra because he summons a couple of clones into the room. Minato doesn’t question it. All of the clones are sleeping, though.

 “Hey, why are you guys all sleeping?” Naruto grumbles, looking at the clones. Someone knocks on the door, and Minato is instantly alert. “What’s up? Has she already dumped you?” Minato knows how Jiraiya knocks, and that does not sound like it. He quickly takes a couple kunai and puts the seals on it. These makeshift kunai will be good for now. The person knocks again, and Naruto starts walking up to the door. “Okay, okay! Fine!” He opens the door, and everything seems to stop. Everything seems so slow.

An Uchiha with the same cloak that masked man wore twelve years ago is in the doorway.

     “NARUTO! Get away from him!” Minato calls out. But Naruto is basically frozen there. He recognizes that face, it’s Itachi. Itachi defected? He never expected that from him. They wouldn’t stand a chance, because Minato can’t do anything in this form. He instantly starts coughing after, so he can’t do anything about it.

 “Really...” An unknown voice says. Minato doesn’t recognize it. “Who’d believe a kid like you has the Nine-Tailed Fox in him.” Minato quickly puts a hand over the stomach on his seal, shocked. They are after the nine tails in Naruto! He knows he has the yin part of the Kyuubi sealed inside him, but they don’t know that. The second person is also wearing the same uniform and looks so much like a shark. He recognizes him after a little bit. Kisame, one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. This isn’t good. Hopefully Jiraiya comes back soon, otherwise there will be disastrous consequences. He finally stops coughing and looks up to them. “Itachi, who’s that kid in the back coughing his lungs out? You never says anything about him, but it doesn’t matter. He looks as easy to swipe away as a fly,” Kisame says. Minato frowns. He’ll have to do something about this and soon, and it would be worth giving himself away. Naruto is just standing there, shocked.

 “Naruto, you will come with us,” Itachi says, looking straight at his son.

 

Could this day get any worse?

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow im so inspired im making so many chapters what is this

     He thought the day couldn’t get any worse, and boy was he so wrong. He looks at Itachi but doesn’t look directly into his eyes. That could spell doom for him. “Shall we go outside?” Itachi says, and Minato is basically frozen. The shock freezes him, but he quickly recovers. He won’t let this happen. Naruto goes outside into the hallway, and besides Kisami’s acknowledgement that Minato was coughing harshly, he doesn’t notice him at all.

 “Itachi, it’ll be a pain in the neck if this kid moves around and... Maybe I better chop off a leg just in case,” Kisame murmurs. No. He won’t let it happen. “Now then...” Minato watches Kisame approach Naruto, and he can barely move. Shaking.

 “Long time no see...” Itachi says, and Kisame pauses. “Sasuke.” Minato freezes. What is Itachi’s younger brother doing here?

 “Uchiha Itachi!” Sasuke says, looking directly at his brother’s eyes. Sasuke’s Sharingan may be activated, but Minato knows he doesn’t stand a chance.

 “Uchiha... Itachi?” Naruto says, looking confused and a little bit scared. He won’t let them touch his son. Never, not in a million years. He can at least promise Kushina that much.

 “Huh... Sharingan,” Kisame says. “And moreover, he resembles you a lot... Who the heck is he?” Kisame looks at Sasuke, releasing his grip on his sword.

 “He’s my younger brother,” Itachi replies, keeping a straight face. No emotion in it whatsoever.

 “But I heard the entire Uchiha clan had been murdered,” Kisame responds with a smile on his face. What? Mikoto has been killed as well? Only Sasuke, Itachi, and that strange masked man who controlled the Kyuubi are left? “By you.”

     What? This isn’t right. Can’t be right. Focus, focus. Focus on the present, not the past. And remember what they are about to do. Neither Sasuke or Itachi have noticed Minato, but Kisame has. Kisame doesn’t really pay attention to him though.

That will be a mistake.

 “Uchiha Itachi, I will kill you!” Sasuke yells, and Minato knows exactly why, but knows it’s futile. Both brother’s eyes open, with Sharingan activated, but only Itachi’s is complete. Sasuke is at an even bigger disadvantage than he already was. This won’t go well. “It’s just as you said... I held a grudge against you and hated you,” Sasuke continues, and he forms Chidori in the palm of his hand. Kakashi taught Sasuke Chidori? That was a terrible idea. This will not go well. “For the singular purpose of killing you, I... I have lived my life!” Sasuke finishes.

 “Sasuke!” Naruto calls out, obviously worried and stressed. So, they are friends. Minato doesn’t know how they even became friends, but he isn’t going to worry about that at this time.

 “Chidori?” Itachi murmurs, recognizing the jutsu. So Itachi must have fought Kakashi at one time, or it’s fame had spread throughout the village.

 “I will kill you!” Sasuke yells and throws his hand with Chidori to the wall and charges at Itachi. It’s futile, a frontal attack on Itachi at that skill level is a terrible idea. Itachi makes no move to defend himself, and right before Sasuke thinks he will hit he yells “Die!”

     It happened so quick to most people it would be a blur, but to Minato it was easily seen. Itachi grabbed his brother’s hand and threw it into the wall so the Chidori was redirected and didn’t hit him. Since there is a new hole in the wall, Minato looks out of it to see the action better. There is nothing he can do now. Naruto looks at this, completely shocked. Sasuke starts trying to pull his hand free from his brother’s grip, but he isn’t succeeding. Naruto quickly makes a sign, and Minato turns to him, shocked. He’s pulling out the Kyuubi’s chakra to use for himself.

 “Chakra permeates the air... I see... So, this is the Nine-Tailed Fox chakra!” Kisame says, smiling at the confirmation.

 “You jerk!” Sasuke says, but he can’t get free to try and help Naruto.

 “You’re in the way,” Itachi says calmly, and just as calmly without any effort, breaks Sasuke’s wrist.

 “AGHH!!” Sasuke screams out in pain, and Minato stays still. Can’t rush, it’ll decrease the effectiveness of what he plans to do.

 “SASUKE!” Naruto calls out, worried for his friend. This isn’t going well at all. “Darn it!” Naruto bites his thumb and starts the hand signs for the summoning jutsu. Jiraiya got him to sign the toad contract?!

 “You’re too slow!” Kisame says, slicing his still bandaged sword through the chakra field. The Kyuubi’s chakra disappeared, and Minato just stands there for a moment, shocked. The sword can eat chakra. He sees Naruto look up at Kisame in fear, and then everything seems to slow to a stop. He can’t hear what Kisame is saying, and he focuses.

He sees the sword go down.

     But when the sword starts to go down, he throws the makeshift kunai as quick as lighting into the ground in front of Naruto and teleports there, blocking the sword while a very confused toad that was supposed to block the attack first is summoned behind him.

 “What?” Kisame says, startled. The smoke from the summoning covers both Minato and the toad, and the toad is obviously incredibly confused. It was supposed to block the attack, not Minato. When the smoke clears, Minato’s transformation had wore off. He’s back to his ‘just graduated from the Academy’ look, and he is somehow blocking Kisame’s sword with a kunai, surprising everyone there. Kisame and Itachi see the resemblance between Minato and Naruto immediately, and Minato quickly forms chakra into his palm with some pain, but that does not matter. He instantly pushes the Rasengan into Kisame’s chest, and Kisame goes flying while a very confused Jiraiya who was summoned right before the Rasengan hit Kisame is looking at Minato while Itachi just looks at him. Jiraiya quickly covers his confusion.

 “You guys just don’t know me much, do you?” Jiraiya murmurs. “This man Jiraiya does not fall victim to any woman’s allurement, but rather his forte is winning woman’s affection!” Minato sighs, and rolls his eyes. Maybe Kushina is starting to rub off on him. He picks up the kunai that he threw into the ground and looks at Itachi right in the eye. Jiraiya doesn’t notice Minato yet, and that’s fine with him. “I’m not made to blindly follow after a woman’s feminine charm!” Jiraiya puts the woman against the wall and looks towards Itachi. But first, his eyes fall on Minato and his eyes widen in shock. Minato knew that Jiraiya would instantly recognize him.

 “Jiraiya! This is NOT the time to be thinking about the past!” Minato yells at Jiraiya, his teeth ground in frustration. Kisame gets up from the ground and walks back towards them.

 “You are Master Jiraiya, one of the legendary Sannin... I didn’t believe I’d be able to stop you so easily despite the fact you are a huge womanizer,” Kisame says, smiling.

 “WHAT?! They know the true identity of pervy sage?!” Naruto says, with a completely shocked expression on his face and looking at Jiraiya. Minato nearly chokes at that one again, it’s hard not to laugh after things like that are said, even in bad situations.

 “Well no, that’s not neccesarily who I am...” Jiraiya trails off, looking from Minato to Kisame. The very confused toad disappears in a puff of smoke, and Minato stands there.

     “Seems like you released the genjutsu that we put on the woman,” Kisame responds, still having that smile on his face. Minato knows if he had proper chakra control and his normal amount of chakra, Kisame probably wouldn’t be standing there. Well, at least he could even make the Rasengan.

 “You shouldn’t call yourself a man for using such a cowardly tactic like casting a genjutsu on a woman with your hypnotic eyes to separate me and Naruto,” Jiraiya says, frowning and looking back at the two criminals. “But now that I know who this kid I picked up along the way here actually is, he probably wouldn’t allow Naruto to be hurt in the slightest.” Jiraiya looks at Minato, and Minato looks quickly to the side, trying to avoid eye contact. This is incredibly awkward. “Your target is Naruto, after all,” Jiraiya murmurs. Naruto looks shocked, and Minato readies one of his kunai, his frown deepening.

 “No wonder Kakashi knew that as well... I see clearly now. The information source was you,” Itachi replies, looking directly at Jiraiya. Did Itachi use his Sharingan on Kakashi? Even if Kakashi has his Sharingan, he can’t use it as well as Itachi can, both because he has the right body for it and has both eyes with Sharingan. “To abduct Naruto is the number one priority placed by our organization, the Akatsuki!” Itachi says, and Minato freezes. So that masked man is part of the Akatsuki? He tried to get the Kyuubi from Kushina as well.

 “I can’t let you have Naruto,” Jiraiya says.

 “I wonder about that,” Itachi mused.

 “This is perfect... I’ll get rid of two of you right here!” Jiraiya proclaims.

 “Don’t butt in...” Sasuke says, on the ground. Minato looks down to him, shocked. This isn’t good, that sense of pride is going to get this kid killed. Sasuke manages to stand up, much to Naruto and Jiraiya’s surprise. “The one who is going to kill him... Is me!” Sasuke yells.

 “Right now, I have no interest in you,” Itachi says. It’s surprising that one could be so blank.

 “Don’t mess with me!” Sasuke says, before charging at Itachi again. He obviously didn’t learn anything from last time, and Itachi easily knocks him back with a kick to the stomach. It knocks Sasuke into the wall all the way down the hallway, and he slumps down, nearly passing out.

     “Sasuke!” Naruto yells, and Minato hopes that Naruto doesn’t do something incredibly rash. But it’s hard to guess, because of his unpredictability. “Darn you!” Naruto says, running towards Itachi. Damnit! He should’ve predicted something like this.

 “Naruto! I told you not to butt in!” Sasuke calls out to Naruto, and Naruto stops. Minato thinks Jiraiya should just end the fight now, as he can’t do much like this. Sasuke charges again, only to be thrown into the wall again. Minato can easily tell that Sasuke is on the verge of passing out. Naruto stands there, shocked, while Minato can only watch. “This is... My battle!” Sasuke says, before managing to stand up again.

 “Fine,” Itachi replies. Minato didn’t expect Itachi to go after Sasuke, and certainly wasn’t prepared for it.

 “Wha—” Jiraiya steps forward a little bit, but Kisame blocks him.

 “You heard him, didn’t you? This is their battle. Let’s not bother with it,” Kisame says. Itachi slowly walks over to Sasuke, and when he does, he simply beats every inch of his little brother while Minato, Jiraiya, and Naruto can only watch. “He doesn’t show any mercy, not even to his little brother,” Kisame says with a smile. Itachi then picks up Sasuke and slams him into a wall and keeps him there. Minato sees what Itachi is going to do and tries to stop it.

But this time he’s too slow.

 “No!” Minato yells, and tries to teleport there but he falls down coughing. This isn’t going how it was supposed to at all. He can’t hear Itachi and Sasuke anymore, but Naruto is his concern right now. Jiraiya quickly looks at Minato, obviously concerned. Minato looks back up to Jiraiya, just feeling so utterly crushed. He can’t do anything like this.

 “Stop it already, you!” Naruto says, charging past Kisame and towards Itachi while Minato keeps coughing. Jiraiya makes a sequence of hand signs, and while Kisame chases after Naruto he finishes the jutsu Toad Mouth Trap.

 “What?” Kisame says, looking at the now fleshy walls around him.

 “How unfortunate, Itachi, Kisame,” Jiraiya says with a smile. “You are already inside the Myomoku mountain toad’s stomach! You guys are wanted criminals anyway. I’ll turn you guys into fodder for the stone toad. Minato finally stops coughing, and somehow manages to get up. “Naruto stay still! Stay calm, this is my jutsu,” Jiraiya says. Sasuke slowly starts getting pushed into the wall to protect him, while Minato is still struggling to stay standing.

 “Come here, Kisame!” Itachi says, looking at the shark-like criminal. Kisame quickly frees himself from the fleshy appendages that are starting to make him get trapped inside the flesh walls and follows Itachi down the hallway.

 “It’s useless! There hasn’t been one person who has been able to escape from this!” Jiraiya says, and makes the walls start to converge on Kisame and Itachi. The wanted criminals quickly go around the corner, and moments later a huge explosion is heard. Jiraiya quickly runs to the end of the hallway, and Minato follows. He is surprised that despite his extreme exhaustion he can keep up.

     “Hey... Pervy sage!” Naruto says, then follows Jiraiya and Minato. They all turn the corner and stop. There’s a hole in the wall, and it is surrounded by black flames. He doesn’t know what the flames are, but it somehow made a hole in the wall of a fire-breathing stone toad. He can hear some disconnected words that Jiraiya is saying, but he can barely tell whats going on now. Jiraiya dispells the jutsu and seals the fire, after telling Naruto to back away from it so he doesn’t burn himself. Naruto catches Sasuke, and then Minato hears footsteps. Naruto puts Sasuke on the ground, then a kunai is suddenly thrown at the wall. Minato quickly looks at it, then back to the hall.

 “DYNAMIC...” Gai says, before being interrupted by Jiraiya.

 “Gai?”

 “ENTRY!!” Gai finishes, and before anyone can see what the hell is going on, Minato goes between them and gets a kick to the face. Ouch. He can see Guy look down at him with a very confused expression, and then he blacks out.  


What an amazing day.

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

     Minato was not in the most agreeable mood when he woke up, because he got kicked in the face and is exhausted. His head is bandaged a little bit, and the bandages on his hands have been changed. His makeshift kunai are right next to him, and he is on the ground in an area he doesn’t recognize.

 “So, you are finally awake,” Jiraiya says, looking at Minato. Naruto still looks incredibly confused and is looking at Minato like he’s just in another transformation. “You look the same as you did back then... Minato,” Jiraiya says, with a smile on his face. Minato gets up the best he can, and simply hugs Jiraiya. They both needed it, and they didn’t know how long it would last.

 “Pervy sage? What’s going on?” Naruto looks incredibly confused. Minato doesn’t blame him, he’d be confused too.

 “How’d you come back?” Jiraiya murmured, and they stopped hugging. It was awkward in the first place, but it was a good confirmation that Minato wasn’t going to just suddenly disappear into nothing.

 “I do not know. One moment I was fighting, another I was on the ground right outside Konaha while it was being attacked,” Minato says, looking at his hands. He doesn’t like being like this, and it limits him so much. He knows he doesn’t have much time left.

 “I think you somehow got revived when Orochimaru tried to reanimate you using forbidden jutsu, because of the unusual circumstances surrounding your death,” Jiraiya says, and Minato can’t help but look shocked. Orochimaru tried to reanimate him? Like the first and second hokages?

 “Like the first and second hokages? They fought Lord Third without a mind after Orochimaru placed some kunai with charms on them in their heads,” Minato asks, trying to figure this all out. Naruto is just looking incredibly confused. “Also, where are we now? My sense of time has also been screwed up from being... There,” He doesn’t elaborate on where he was, as it isn’t the best thing to think about. He can still feel how cold it was in there, and to reassure himself he isn’t there anymore he touches the ground, because it was rough unlike the realm he had trapped him after he completed the Reaper Death Seal. It was also not cold.

 “Outside Tanzaku town. I heard that Tsunade is in there, and she might be able to help you as well,” Jiraiya responds, looking like he is thinking. Minato doesn’t know how to break it to Jiraiya that he doesn’t have much time left. Jiraiya is probably just thinking of getting his original body back.

 “Pervy sage! What is going on? You never answered my question!” Naruto says, looking from Minato to Jiraiya.

 “What happened when I was knocked out?” Minato asked, looking at Jiraiya.

 “Gai kicked you in the face and all of us were too shocked to do anything at that exact moment. I yelled at Gai for a little bit, and he asked if we were looking for Tsunade. Apparently, Kakashi is in a coma because of Itachi’s Sharingan, and one of his students' limbs were beyond repair for anyone except her. You were also knocked out for three days,” Jiraiya says, finishing the explanation.

“Alright,” Minato says.

     “Wait, this guy was DEAD?!” Naruto yells, pointing at Minato. Minato looks a tiny bit uncomfortable, but he pushes that away for the moment.

 “I was. Can we look for Tsunade as soon as possible? I think I’ll be able to stand on my own,” Minato says quickly, making a movement as to say that he can stand up, even though he winces in pain.

 “We will look for Tsunade, but if you fall and look like you are in worse pain you will most likely not stand,” Jiraiya replies blandly. Minato frowns slightly, not liking that premonition in the slightest.

 “Do you have any of my kunai?” Minato asks, standing up. It would be nice to have something he recognizes.

 “I have one that I’ve kept with me for a while. I’m pretty sure Kakashi has the rest,” Jiraiya replies, and gives it to Minato.

 “One is enough, thank you,” Minato replies happily. Naruto just looks incredibly confused, and they all start walking down to Tazuna town.

>|<          >|<          >|<

     At noon, they finally reach a spot where part of the wall has been destroyed along with the entire castle destroyed. They quickly realize Tsunade isn’t there anymore, and they spend the better part of the day looking for her before giving up and looking for something to eat. To both Minato and Jiraiya’s surprise, Minato hasn’t fallen once or looked in too much pain. Or felt too much pain. When they enter the pub, Minato doesn’t like the place in the slightest. “Why are we going into a pub?” Naruto asked, and frankly Minato could say the same. He looks at Jiraiya, letting him know that he disapproves of going into a pub.

 “So what?” Jiraiya responds. Minato knows he looks visibly irritated, even though theres a calm smile on his face. Jiraiya was pushing his limits.

 “I’ve told you many times, I can’t drink! I’m too young!” Naruto says, and Jiraiya was probably about to say something along the lines of ‘No don’t say that in front of him’ but Jiraiya was too late.

 “... You tried to get him to drink?” Minato says ominously, looking directly at Jiraiya. Naruto looks incredibly confused. “Be happy Kushina isn’t here. She would beat you into dust.” Jiraiya instantly looks like he regretted at least one thousand things at once.

 “I regret it. And we are going into the pub because we can find information there,” Jiraiya responds, looking at Minato but not really wanting to think of Kushina beating him up. It’s painful.

 “First time is last time, Jiraiya-sensei,” Minato says with a tone that shows that if it happens again, despite Minato being in the body of a child he will beat Jiraiya the hell up.

 “Fine, Minato,” Jiraiya says with a sigh, then goes into the pub. Naruto and Jiraiya instantly get into an argument as soon as they walk into the pub, but then suddenly Jiraiya, Naruto, and Minato look to another table with people looking right at them.

It’s Tsunade.

     After a couple moments of sudden silence later, they finally talk. “TSUNADE?!” Jiraiya yells out, pointing at her and completely shocked out of his mind. Minato sighs, some things never change.

 “JIRAIYA?! Why are you here?” Tsunade says, standing up with her hands on the table looking a bit less shocked.

 “I’ve finally found you! I’m exhausted...” Jiraiya says, while he walks towards Tsunade’s table. Minato and Naruto follow him. Somehow, the three of them fit on the other side of the booth that Tsunade is in. A woman that Minato doesn’t recognize looks at Minato with concern, then Minato realizes his hands are still bandaged and his head is also bandaged. With a closer look, his hands are bleeding again. He frowns slightly but puts his hands in his lap and ignores it. The woman obviously sees this, but Minato stares back at her whilenonverbally challenging her to say something.

The woman doesn’t say anything.

     A waiter brings some food, and they start eating. Minato however doesn’t eat anything, because he really feels like he’ll just start coughing. He can tell the woman is internally noting this, and he looks a bit tired. Well, he just got up from a three-day long coma and walked for the entire day after all. Jiraiya and Tsunade are obviously drinking sake, and even if Minato was in his original body and the right age to drink, he wouldn’t join. He never really liked alcohol anyway.

 “In any case... Today is a day I see many old friends,” Tsunade says, while looking at the table. Minato looks at her quickly, and then realizes that she doesn’t even know who he is. That is helpful, he doesn’t have to explain everything again. Jiraiya pours her another cup of sake and goes back and drinks his own.

 “You mean Orochimaru...” Jiraiya responds. Minato looks at Jiraiya quickly, not liking what he heard. Orochimaru had already contacted Tsunade? Tsunade is the only one who could heal Orochimaru’s arms. He doesn’t say anything though. “What happened?” Jiraiya asks. Tsunade exchanges a glance with the woman, and Jiraiya seems to miss it. Minato however, doesn’t. He knows Tsunade is hiding something, but he isn’t a sort of master liar himself.

 “Nothing really. We exchanged a greeting,” Tsunade says. Minato looks at Jiraiya, an unspoken warning in his eyes. Jiraiya takes it calmly, and the conversation continues. Tsunade takes out a deck of cards and starts to shuffle them before handing them over to Jiraiya so he can shuffle them as well. “What about you? What do you want from me?” Tsunade asks. Jiraiya starts shuffling the cards.

     “I’ll be straight with you,” Jiraiya says, putting down the cards in the middle of the table. “Tsunade, the village has demanded that you become the Fifth Hokage.” Naruto instantly freezes, and Minato looks shocked for a moment before realizing that it’s the best decision. He might not even make it to try and become hokage again anyway, and Jiraiya would make a terrible hokage. Danzo would be worse, though. The woman looked shocked as well, and Tsunade too. Minato waits silently for a response. Knowing Tsunade, she will be stubborn about it. “Do you know about the Third Hokage?” Jiraiya asks, and Minato looks to the side as soon as he says that. He quickly looks to Minato, realizing something but not pressing further.

 “Orochimaru did it, right? I heard about it directly from him,” Tsunade responds, calmly. Minato looks at Tsunade, but she pays no attention to him. He is fine with that.

 “Orochimaru?! Did he really kill the old man, the Third Hokage? Who is Orochimaru?” Naruto asks, completely shocked. Minato looks at Naruto, then Tsunade.

 “Orochimaru is a sannin just like Jiraiya and Tsunade,” Minato responds. “And yes, he did kill Lord Third... I couldn’t do anything,” Minato says, murmuring the last part and just stares at his hands. Shizune looks at Minato quickly, instantly questioning something. Naruto doesn’t hear the last part of it, but Jiraiya did. He nods in confirmation, and Naruto looks shocked out of his mind.

 “Hey, your hands are bleeding again,” Naruto says suddenly, looking at Minato’s hands.

 “It doesn’t matter now. That can wait for later,” Minato responds, waving him off. He easily catches the look the unknown woman sends him, and he still doesn’t eat.

 “Why did Orochimaru kill the old man though?! The sannin are all from Konoha, right?” Naruto says, obviously upset. “Then why—”

     “Who are these two brats?” Tsunade says, interrupting Naruto. Minato and Naruto look directly at Tsunade, and Jiraiya looks at Minato. He shakes his head, signifying not to tell Tsunade who he is. It’ll just cause problems and waste precious time. Naruto looks pretty upset at being called a brat, and Minato can’t help but feel the same because he is starting to get really tired of being in a child’s body.

 “Uzumaki Naruto,” Jiraiya says, and Tsunade and the woman look shocked.

 “Hey, you hold it there!” Naruto says, then slams his fist on the table. Minato quickly looks at him, with a stare that usually got people to stop but unsurprisingly to Minato, Naruto didn’t listen. “I’m not done talking yet! This Orochimaru bastard that killed Old Man Hokage—”

 Minato interrupts him. “Language.” Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Naruto look at him for a second, and Jiraiya looks like he is about to burst out laughing but he quickly gets over it.

 “Who the heck is he? He’s a legendary sannin, right?! Then knowing that... Why would you, Pervy sage, leave such a guy alone?!” Naruto says, looking frustrated. “Besides... What do you mean this person is the Fifth Hokage?!” Naruto finishes, pointing at Tsunade. Minato sighs, Naruto is as stubborn as Kushina.

 “Naruto, be quiet for a moment,” Jiraiya says.

 “But—” Naruto tries to argue with him, but Minato can see it won’t go anywhere.

 “Just shut up,” Jiraiya says, countering any argument that Naruto tried to come up with. Minato looks at Jiraiya for a moment, and then back to Tsunade. “I’ll say this again. They are demanding that you become the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade. So, what’s your answer?” Tsunade frowns for a moment, thinking. Jiraiya puts down three of the five cards he is holding. “Will you accept it?” Tsunade closes her eyes, obviously thinking.

 “You still haven’t told me who the other brat is,” Tsunade says, changing the subject. Minato looks visibly irritated.

 “He does not want to be introduced, as he doesn’t feel that he needs to be introduced for some reason,” Jiraiya responds. Tsunade frowns, looking at Minato, but then goes back to the previous topic.

 “What do you say... Tsunade?” Jiraiya asks, keeping eye contact with Tsunade as she continues to think.

 “I really don’t get it!” Naruto says, frustrated. Tsunade opens her eyes and puts all her cards down on the table.

 “Impossible... I refuse!” Tsunade says, with a steely edge in her voice.

 “I remember those words... You said those same words when I asked you to go out with me,” Jiraiya says, thinking back with a small smile.

 “What the heck are you talking about?! You said it yourself! Didn’t you say that you will bring her back to the village and have her treat Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei? But what’s this demand for her to be Fifth Hokage?! And on top of that, she refuses!” Naruto yells out, and Minato looks at him with a small warning not to take it any farther. He knows it won’t work though. Minato looks back at the other woman, noting that she looked somewhat worried. Naruto makes a noise as he holds his head in his hands to show his frustration, and Minato just looks exasperated.

 “Calm down,” Jiraiya says. “There can’t be no other Fifth Hokage than Tsunade.” Minato knows that Jiraiya is wrong but doesn’t say anything about it. He doesn’t even want to bring up the possibility. “During the dreadful Great War Era, she contributed tremendously to the Leaf’s victory. To this date, there’s no one who can rival her combat and medical skills. Still more, Tsunade is the granddaughter of the First Hokage. So together with her talents, there’s no one else more suited to be Fifth Hokage.” Jiraiya says, looking directly at Tsunade. “If she becomes Hokage, that means she’ll come back to the village. And then, as I told you, she can treat the two. Besides, this is what Leaf’s top decision-making advisors settled upon. Genin like you have no say in the matter.” Jiraiya finishes, looking at Naruto at the last part. Naruto looks frustrated, and looks to the side away from Jiraiya.

 “Jiraiya,” Tsunade started. Jiraiya looks at her, waiting for her to continue. “Unlike your previous apprentice, this kid not only has a bad mouth and wit, he’s ugly to match.” Minato freezes, and he touches his cheek with a bandaged hand for a moment to make sure he is there and isn’t just going to disappear.

 “What?!” Naruto yells out. Sometimes, Minato wishes that he would just be a little quieter.

 “It’s tough on anyone to be compared to the Fourth Hokage,” Jiraiya says. “He had all the qualities to be the greatest ninja in history, brimming with talent in jutsu, and he had a brilliant mind!” Jiraiya continues, and Minato looks to the side. Trust Jiraiya to embarrass him like this, he was probably doing it on purpose! At least Tsunade didn’t know who he was now. “Popular with people, and he was almost as handsome as me.” Minato doesn’t respond to that one.

     “But even that Fourth Hokage died quickly,” Tsunade responded. Minato quickly looks up to her, then his eyes go slowly downcast. If only he defeated that strange masked man, if only the masked man didn’t show to begin with... Then he wouldn’t have died, and Naruto wouldn’t have to grow up alone. Minato knows that he looks visibly uncomfortable, but he doesn’t try to hide it. He deserves it after all. “Risking his own life for the village... Life is different from money. To easily risk it and lose it is a fools doing!” Minato looks to the side. He saved the village at least, but he didn’t save Kushina. And he wasn’t there to make it so Naruto wasn’t alone. The woman looks at Minato, but for once he doesn’t look at her back. He tries to calm himself down, but he just knows he deserves this anyway. What would have happened if things had gone as planned that night? Jiraiya looks at Tsunade with a small warning, but Tsunade ignores it. Naruto is obviously very angry about this, and Minato hears Naruto’s chopsticks snap in half. “Both my grandfather and the Second Hokage seemed to want to subdue the disturbances of war above all else. But after all, they died in vain in the midst of their dreams for the village.” Minato knows that Naruto is about to do something reckless, and he prepares for a most likely futile attempt to stop him.

 “You have changed, Tsunade. I don’t know what you thought in your heart before, but to say such a thing out loud...” Jiraiya responds, and Minato wishes that they will just finish the conversation quickly enough that he can recover from thinking about things that he really didn’t want to think about. Tsunade chuckles a little.

 “Although I look young, I’m already in my fifties... Years change people. Same goes for Sarutobi-sensei. No wonder he died showing off that old age!” Tsunade replies, and Minato looks at her in both shock and anger, but Tsunade just sees a kid that just happens to be a little upset by what she just said. Jiraiya and Naruto are also upset, but Naruto looks like he is about to go out of control. “Hokage is a bother. Only a fool would take it on,” Tsunade finishes. All the dishes on the table scatter as Naruto jumps on it to confront Tsunade, and Minato knew this would happen.

 “Naruto, off the table,” Minato says, knowing he sounds a little hoarse. But it doesn’t matter, Naruto is going to protest no matter what Minato does. And he won’t get off the table either. He tries to attack Tsunade, but Jiraiya grabs him by his bright orange jacket and keeps him in the air.

 “Hey! Let go of me!” Naruto cries out.

 “Don’t! We are in a pub,” Jiraiya responds, irritated.

 “I said LET GO OF ME!” Naruto says louder but is eventually dragged back by Jiraiya and put back in his seat.

 “Lady Tsunade!” The woman Minato doesn’t know says, and he listens closely.

 “Anyone who makes fun of the old man and the Fourth Hokage... It doesn’t matter if you are a woman! I’ll clobber you with all my might!” Naruto yells, and Minato feels shocked. Despite Naruto knowing that the Fourth Hokage, also known as Minato, sealed half the Kyuubi inside him he still defends him? Jiraiyah looks at Minato for a moment, then back to Tsunade. A moment later, Tsunade only partly gets on the table.

 “You’re pretty gutsy, confronting me like this... Let’s take this outside, brat!” Tsunade replies, getting off the table and going outside. Jiraiya and Minato follow Tsunade and Naruto out, while the woman and the pig follow behind them.  
  


Minato is starting to get tired of this.

 


	7. Chapter 7

     The tension is high, and Minato watches Naruto and Tsunade take opposite sides of the road, only a small distance apart. “Though I may not look like it, I am one of the sannin. Why should I even take a genin seriously?” Tsunade says, with a small smile on her face.

 “What did you say?!” Naruto says, quickly becoming even more angry. Tsunade raises one finger, and Minato has got a couple conflicting guesses on what it means.

 “An advance notice for a KO?” Jiraiya asks.

 “I don’t mean one minute... With one finger. That’s enough to take you down,” Tsunade says, still smiling.

Ah. Why is he even surprised?

 “Lady Tsunade!” The woman says again, trying to get Tsunade to back down. It isn’t working, Tsunade is too stubborn.

 “Well? Come on, kiddo,” Tsunade says. Naruto is trembling with rage, and Minato knows he can’t do much about it. But if the situation gets too out of hand, he can always stop the fight. It might go poorly because of this form, but he can probably do it.

 “Don’t make fun of me!” Naruto says, then charges right at Tsunade. Terrible idea, and challenging Tsunade was a bad idea in the first place. Naruto takes out a couple kunai and shuriken, and he throws the shuriken at Tsunade who easily dodges them. Minato notes with satisfaction that the makeshift-kunai that he made for himself are in Naruto’s hand, as he swapped the kunai out a couple hours ago. Jiraiya quickly looks at Minato, realizing the same thing. Then looks back at Tsunade. Naruto tries to stab Tsunade with the kunai, but Tsunade easily takes the kunai out of Naruto’s hand and brings it up to his forehead protector, knocking it off. The kunai lands right in front of Tsunade, and Minato makes a small smile. At least if it goes too far, he can easily intervene. Naruto falls and tries to get up, but he is flicked in the forehead by Tsunade and goes at least twenty feet away from her.

     “Lady Tsunade!” The woman says again, trying to get Tsunade to stop. It isn’t working. Naruto gets up and looks at Tsunade for a second, thinking.

 “Why that no good—” Naruto says, but Tsunade interrupts him.

 “Hey, brat! I’ll ask you one more thing before you faint. Why... Get so passionate at the Hokage’s name?” Tsunade asks, her facial expression not changing.

 “Unlike you... I will be the heir to the Hokage name, no matter what! Because Hokage is... Because Hokage is my dream!” Naruto says, with a smile on his face. Tsunade looks shocked, and lets her guard down, looking to the side. She’s probably thinking of someone, and Minato looks to Naruto.

 “That kid...” the woman says, looking directly at Naruto. Naruto quickly closes his eyes and focuses, and Minato can’t believe what he saw.

     Naruto was forming the Rasengan, and using this time to charge at Tsunade. Jiraiya witnesses Minato’s eyes widening, and gives him a smile.

 “Wha—?! This jutsu is—” Tsunade says, right before she is about to be hit she she brings her finger down to the ground to crack the ground underneath Naruto’s feet.

But she’s too slow.

     Minato teleports in front of the two of them using the kunai, and all of them are shocked at the same time. He grabs Tsunade’s arm, and grab’s Naruto’s arm, making the battle stop before they hit each other. His eyes are icy looking, and he sighs. The woman, Jiraiyah, and Tsunade all look at him with a startled expression. “I’d rather you not hurt each other. One injured person is bad enough,” Minato says, then releases both Naruto and Tsunade. The Rasengan hits the ground, creating a hole in it and Minato picks up the kunai. He frowns a little bit, realizing his hands are bleeding. Looks like he reopened the wounds.

 “Your wounds are never going to heal if you keep reopening them like that,” Jiraiyah complains. Minato shrugs, and walks back to Jiraiya, not even pausing when Tsunade looks at him like he’s insane. He stopped her attack with one arm, and he surprised himself then.

 “Jiraiya, in all seriousness, who the hell is this other kid?” Tsunade says, looking at Minato. Minato looks up to Jiraiya.

 “I’ll tell you later,” Minato says evasively, not answering the question. Tsunade looks annoyed, but he doesn’t answer the question. Jiraiya looks at him for a moment, and Minato looks back.

 “Jiraiya, was it you who taught this brat Rasengan, the Spiral Chakra Sphere?” Tsunade says, glaring at Jiraiya.

 “I’m his teacher after all,” Jiraiya responds.

 “Humph. You and the Fourth Hokage are the only ones who can use the jutsu. Don’t get this kid’s hopes up! That’s why the moony kid starts joking about becoming Hokage!” Tsunade replies.

 “It’s not a joke, stupid! If I have three days, I’ll master this jutsu!” Naruto yells. Oh, he’s done it now. He’s made a bet with Tsunade, and that’s another bad decision.

 “You said it kid. Men don’t go back on their word!” Tsunade says.

 “Hah! I stand by my words. That’s my Ninja Way!” Naruto says, with a smile.

 “Then how about a wager?” Tsunade replies.

 “A wager?” Naruto says, looking confused.

 “I’ll give you one week. If you can master this jutsu, I’ll aknowledge you have what it takes to be Hokage and give you this necklace,” Tsunade says, pointing at the necklace she is wearing.

 “Lady Tsunade! That’s the precious—” The woman says, before being cut off by Naruto.

 “I don’t need such a sorry necklace!” Naruto responds.

 “Don’t say such things, Naruto. That’s the only one of its kind in this world, and you could buy three mountains if you were to sell it. It belonged to the First Hokage.” Jiraiya says, and Minato looks up to him with a disapproving glance. Of course, get his son caught in a wager by bribing him with money. It was Naruto’s fault he even started the wager in the first place, though.

 “A-awesome...” Naruto says, looking shocked. “Well, that’ll be fine!” Minato looks disappointed, and Jiraiya just looks shocked.

 “Good. However, you lose if you can’t master the jutsu in one week!” Tsunade responds. “And you’ll give me all the money you have on you.”

 “Oh! Gama-chan! When did she...” Naruto cries out. He named his frog wallet? Alright then.

 “Lady Tsunade, why?! That necklace is...” The woman trails off, standing in front of Tsunade.

 “He won’t be able to do it, anyway,” Tsunade replies, looking to the side. Now Minato just wants to help Naruto win the wager out of spite, but he knows he shouldn’t help him. “Let’s go, Shizune.” Finally, he knows her name. Tsunade and Shizune walk away, and he whispers to Jiraiya for a moment.

 “Naruto, go an inn and wait for me, alright? We’ll be back in a little bit,” Jiraiya says.

 “Uh... Ok!” Naruto says, then goes to look for an inn. Minato looks towards Tsunade and Shizune, who both have stopped.

     “So brat, have you finally decided to introduce yourself?” Tsunade says with a smile. Minato smiles back.

 “Yup,” Minato responds.

 “Are you sure? Using your chakra could injure you more,” Jiraiya says with a note of worry in his voice.

 “I’ll be fine,” Minato replies easily. Thinking a little bit more, he probably won’t be. Tsunade looks at Minato, curious and seeing that he’s building up his chakra. He winces a little bit and Jiraiya looks a little concerned, but Minato makes a couple of hand signs and transforms back to his original form in a puff of smoke. Tsunade looks confused for a moment.

 “I haven’t seen you in a while, Tsunade,” Minato says with a smile. He is in the outfit he died in he notes morbidly, and his voice has changed as well. His hands and head are still bandaged though. Tsunade looks completely shocked.

 “Minato?!” Tsunade cries out, completely surprised. Jiraiya smiles slightly, and Shizune is also shocked.

 “That would be me,” Minato replies with a small laugh. He tries to keep up the transformation for a little longer, but he realizes it’s not going to work. He suddenly falls to his knees coughing, and the transformation dispels.

 “Minato?!” Jiraiya calls out, worried. Minato continues coughing for a little bit longer, and he coughs into his arm for a moment then finally stops.

 “I should’ve known, you look the exact same as you did when you first got out of the Academy,” Tsunade says softly. Minato doesn’t respond for a moment, he’s just looking at his arm. Blood. It isn’t a surprise, but it’s a lot more when it first started when he first left the village. He sighs for a moment. How does he say this? It’s so hard.

 “What is it?” Jiraiya says quickly, obviously worried. Minato purses his lips for a moment, trying to think of an answer.

 “I’m fading,” Minato says softly. Jiraiya and Tsunade turn to him quickly, shook and worried.

 “Minato, what do you mean?” Jiraiya says. He really doesn’t want to do this to Jiraiya, but he might not have a choice.

 “Let me start from the beginning...” Minato says. “One second I was fighting in that accursed being’s stomach, and then another I’m in the same body I had as a child next to a monument. I think that’s when Orochimaru tried to reanimate me using his forbidden jutsu.” Minato is visibly shaking, and he tries to make himself still, but he can’t. “He reanimated the First and Second Hokage this way, and made them into mindless killing machines, attacking Lord Third. I got to him and since one of my old seals worked I could get into the barrier, but...” Minato trails off, really not wanting to continue. “Despite how much I tried, Orochimaru used one of his snake swords to stab Lord Third so the Reaper Death Seal was even weaker than it already was because of how old he was.” Minato can’t stop shaking.

 “So that’s why your hands are bandaged,” Jiraiya murmurs.

 “I tried to tell him not to do it. I don’t want anyone to have to go through what I had to go through in there. It’s...” Minato looks for a word to describe it, but he can’t find one. Tsunade walks over to Minato silently.

 “What can I do for you to not fade away? And how much time do you think you have left?” Tsunade says, examining Minato.

 “Probably two weeks, but if I have to use my chakra it could go down to a week or less,” Minato responds, wincing a little.

 “I’ll try to help you, but we need to let Naruto try to win the wager first. That’s just how it goes, does it?” Tsunade says.

 “I guess so,” Minato murmurs. “One more thing.” Jiraiya and Tsunade look at him again.

 “If I fade, I won’t go back to that place. I’ll just disappear forever, and my part of the seal will be broken,” Minato says, touching his stomach.

 “You didn’t seal all of the Kyuubi into Naruto, did you?” Jiraiya says.

 “No, I did not want to make it worse than it would already be, and I didn’t have the strength to seal all of the Kyuubi into Naruto either.” Minato says silently, looking at his shaking hands.

 “Do you want us to tell Naruto?” Tsunade says, looking at Minato.

 “No, unless it’s assured that I’m not going to fade. I don’t want to bring his hopes up just for them to be crushed horribly in the end...” Minato trails off, thinking.

 “That makes sense,” Jiraiya agreed. Minato thinks a little bit, redoing some calculations in his mind.

 “If I get into a battle and have to use a ton of chakra, I will probably fade in a day or less,” Minato admitted.

 “Don’t use it then!” Jiraiya says, but he knows it’s way harder than it sounds. Minato slowly manages to get up again and looks around.

 “I think we should go see if Naruto has found an inn yet,” Minato murmured.

 “Alright,” Jiraiya says. Minato knows he could have worded everything much better, but isn’t that the joy of failing?

 

 

You always seem to mess up everything after.

 


	8. Chapter 8

     It has been a week since that day, and Naruto hasn’t come back to the inn since. The day is about to end, and Jiraiya isn’t back either. So Minato just stays in their room in the inn, making some more of the kunai with the seals on them for future use if needed. He is slightly worried that Jiraiya and Naruto haven’t come back yet, but he thinks he’ll wait another hour before he starts looking. Eventually, he falls asleep even though he didn’t really do much except that transformation.

It isn’t one of the best choices he could’ve made.

     He feels like he’s awake again and opens his eyes, but he isn’t in the same place. He couldn’t have been moved somewhere, right? His eyes adjust to his new surroundings, and he gets up. He starts to recognize the ‘new’ surroundings, realizing where he is. He’s back in the Shinigami’s stomach in his original form, with that darkness pulling around him.

This can’t be right.

He sees the Kyuubi in the distance, and he tries to make sense of what’s going on, but he can’t. He doesn’t have enough time to recover from this sudden change in scenery, before he’s attacked by the Kyuubi and he couldn’t dodge in time.

Then he wakes up, with a very concerned Naruto and Shizune over him. He blinks for a moment, at least he knows that it wasn’t real. Damn nightmares, the last thing he needed. He realizes the bandages are off, and that his hands and head are healed much to his surprise. Maybe it’s because of the half of the Kyuubi he sealed with him? He hopes that if he fades, he will have enough time to seal the other half into Naruto. He really doesn’t want to, though. “We need to go somewhere, Naruto and Minato you should stay here--” Shizune said quickly, opening the window before barely dodging a kunai knife. Minato quickly gets out of bed, looking out the window. “You are--” Shizune gasps out, looking at a apparently drugged Jiraiya. So that’s what happened.

“What?! Oh!” Naruto says, looking at Jiraiya. Minato and Naruto quickly go out of the window towards Jiraiya, while Shizune gets some water.

“Wait, Shizune!” Jiraiya says hoarsely. Well, this is going nicely. “That darned Tsunade spiked my drink.” Minato is surprised by this, he didn’t expect Tsunade to do something like this. Shizune comes back with some water, and Jiraiya sits against the roof while drinking the water. “I can't build up my chakra well...” Jiraiya sighs, not liking the outlook of this. Minato doesn’t either, and a frown appears on his face. “And my body is so numb, I can barely through a kunai knife.”

“That’s lame! Here you’re always bragging about how you’re this awesome ninja! And you’re nailed by her perverted attack? You pervy, pervy sage?” Naruto yells at Jiraiya, obviously disappointed. Minato sighs, this is going even worse.

“Shut up! Even if she’s rotten, she’s still a medical specialist. She’s the only one who could create an odorless and tasteless drug for ninja. But to think I’d be caught off guard, no matter how intoxicated I was...” Jiraiya replies, not happy about the situation. Shizune looks upset about something, but it doesn’t seem to be about how Jiraiya was drugged. Shizune pours Jiraiya another glass of water.

“How are you feeling, Master Jiraiya?” Shizune asks.

“Quite a bit better than this morning, I guess. But be as that may, maybe around thirty percent...” Jiraiya replies, and Minato looks at Jiraiya. He gets this feeling that he’s being watched, and he seems to vanish. He teleported to one of the seals he left around the town, as he put them there as a precaution just in case Orochimaru or someone else wanted to try and surprise them. He looks from the building he is now on, seeing that Jiraiya, Naruto, and Shizune are all shocked and looking at the space he was for a moment. His eyes trail downward, and he sees a young gray-haired ninja watching them. He examines the headband, seeing the sound logo on it. He frowns, then teleports back to Jiraiya.

“We’re being watched,” Minato murmurs. He hears the ninja leave, and he turns to Jiraiya.

“As I thought. What did he look like?” Jiraiya asked.

“Young with gray hair and glasses, and had the sound logo on his headband,” Minato replies. Jiraiya thinks a little bit, that description not coming to mind. Naruto doesn’t know either.

“Hey, Shizune!” Jiraiya says, making Shizune turn to him, slightly worried. “It’s about time you tell me what the heck she was talking about with Orochimaru,” Jiraiya said, looking directly at her.

“Orochimaru?!” Naruto asks, looking at Shizune, who looks shocked. Minato also looks at Shizune.

“I wanted to believe Lady Tsunade...” Shizune started, looking towards the ground. “That’s why I couldn’t say until now.” Minato’s face hardens, a frown appearing on his face. This isn’t good. “But...” She says, bringing her hands to her stomach. “There’s no time. Please come with me! I’ll explain as we run!” Shizune says quickly, standing up. Minato also stands up, looking to Jiraiya.

“Okay!” Jiraiya replies.

“I’m coming too!” Naruto says, and Minato looks at Shizune.

“I am as well,” Minato responds, and they all follow Shizune through the forest. As Shizune explains, Minato’s expression gets icy. He knows he placed a seal near the castle, but he doesn’t know if he should teleport everyone there.

“Say what?! The answer to that is obviously no!” Naruto says, and Minato looks at Shizune.

“I could teleport us there, but it’d take a bit out of me,” Minato murmurs. Jiraiya quickly looks at him.

“No, you won’t. You have limited time and you aren’t going to shorten it like that,” Jiraiya says, his eyes narrowing. Minato purses his lips, forgetting about that. Hard to think about stuff like that when you don’t want to. They go faster through the forest, trying to reach where the castle used to be.

“Orochimaru is planning to once again attack Konoha if his arms are healed!” Shizune says, looking towards Jiraiya and Minato. Minato’s eyes narrow, and he looks back to Shizune.

“The situation will get even more dangerous than that if he’s not stopped now,” Jiraiya responds.

“Then we’ll have to intercept them,” Minato says. He starts going faster, and the others keep up with him. If he really wanted to go fast, they wouldn’t be able to keep up.

“Him screwing around like that!” Naruto yells out, obviously frustrated.

     After only ten more minutes, they finally reach the destroyed castle to only see the ground torn up and the walls broken down, and a tree destroyed. Looks like the deal was cut off.

“Wh-What’s this?” Naruto says, looking at the destruction.

“Huh... Princess Tsunade tore it up big time,” Jiraiya murmurs, looking around.

“Where did old Tsunade go?” Naruto says, walking towards the hole and looking around. He goes through one of the broken-down walls, stepping on Tsunade’s coat. Minato quickly walks over and picks it up.

“Tonton, which way?” Shizune says, and the pig that is apparently named Tonton sniffs the jacket. The pig looks to the east and makes a noise Minato can’t really describe, but he guesses that means ‘This way’ in a sort of sense.

“Alright!” Naruto says, and they start going towards where Tsunade had gone.

“We might not have a lot of time. I know Tsunade is strong, but she’s up against Orochimaru,” Minato says. He grabs the other three and must to Jiraiya’s disappointment teleports to Tsunade. He’s glad he put a seal on Tsunade right before she left, otherwise it would’ve taken longer. Right before Orochimaru and that gray-haired kid can realize what's going on, he throws down a smoke bomb and brings Tsunade back a little bit. Minato looks straight at the kid, then to Orochimaru. His stare turns icy, his eyes narrowing. Orochimaru frowns, obviously recognizing him.

“You’re that kid who got through my barrier in the Chunin Exams,” Orochimaru says, unhappy. Minato smiles for a moment, his eyes closed.

“Seems you recognize me,” Minato replies. He looks at Tsunade, and it seems like she has difficulty breathing.

“Minato! I told you to specifically NOT do that!” Jiraiya complains, looking at Minato. Minato rolls his eyes, and Orochimaru and the gray-haired kid look shocked. Well, I guess it makes sense.

“It’s been a long time... Jiraiya,” Orochimaru continues, smiling at Jiraiya. Jiraiya’s eyes narrow, and he looks at Orochimaru.

“You’ve got an evil look as usual,” Jiraiya replies, with a smile on his face. Minato looks at Jiraiya, then to Orochimaru. Some things just never change, and he thinks that is comforting. After all, it’s been twelve years and he still hasn’t gotten used to what has happened. Naruto looks from Jiraiya to the gray-haired kid, and back again obviously confused. The new kid is just looking at Minato, confused.

“Huh?! K-Kabuto?” Naruto says, pointing at Kabuto. It seems that they have met. Minato quickly holds a kunai, looking at Kabuto.

“Naruto...” Kabuto says with an evil looking smile, and Tsunade quickly looks at Kabuto. Jiraiya smiles.

“I see... So, you two know each other?” Jiraiya responds, looking at Kabuto.

“Yeah, we took the Chunin Exam together! Why are you here, Kabuto?” Naruto asks, trailing off before everyone is pushed to the side by Tsunade, who directs a punch towards Kabuto.

“Get out of the way!” Tsunade yells out.

“Hey!” Jiraiya complains, now falling on the floor. He tries to get up but Tonton bounces off his face and he stays on the ground for a moment.

“I’ll take... These guys!” Tsunade yells out, missing the punch but jumping above Kabuto and kicking his kunai out of his hands. “Just because you have mastered your body movements...” Tsunade continues. “It doesn’t mean that you can move like normal!” She continues punching Kabuto, but she either misses or gets blocked. Kabuto is stuck between a rock and Tsunade, and he can’t go anywhere. “I won’t let you get away now!” Kabuto takes his kunai out of the rock, and quickly readies it. “Too late!” Tsunade cries out, nearly punching Kabuto, but suddenly stops. Minato quickly looks towards Tsunade and runs over and before Kabuto can even tell where Minato went he is kicked in the face and thrown ten feet away. Tsunade has blood all over her and is shaking, and Minato is at a loss for words.

“My body movements have finally returned...” Kabuto says, getting up. “Having two of the Legendary Sannin for opponents is kind of hairy, isn’t it? So even if it’s one, I’ll stop you!” Kabuto says, punching Tsunade away. Tsunade crashes into Shizune, still shaking and Minato looks at Kabuto with barely unrestrained anger in his eyes.

“Lady Tsunade!” Shizune cries out, trying to help Tsunade. Naruto turns to Kabuto, confused.

“Hey hey, what’s happening? Why’s Kabuto fighting with old Tsunade?” Naruto asks, pointing at Kabuto. Naruto obviously still trusts Kabuto, despite everything. This is going to be a problem.

“You’re slow, Naruto... That’s why you are no match for Sasuke,” Kabuto replies, smiling. Naruto looks a little bit upset. Rivals? Jiraiya gets up, looking at Kabuto.

“Take a good look at his headband! He’s Orochimaru’s subordinate,” Jiraiya says, finally standing up. Naruto looks shocked, and Minato can’t help but feel a little bad for him. Naruto must’ve thought Kabuto was his friend.

“Wha...” Naruto trails off, looking at Kabuto.

“That’s right, I was a spy from the Village Hidden in the Sound,” Kabuto responds, smiling. Naruto looks even more shocked, and Minato’s eyes narrow.

“Wh-what are you saying? You’re lying, right Kabuto?” Naruto says, with a little bit of betrayal in his face. and Minato goes back over by Jiraiya and Naruto, his frown deepening. Naruto is way too trusting, and it’s already backfiring on him. “During the Chunin Exam, you taught us a lot… And you also saved us.”

“Well, I wanted to gather information on you guys. Naruto, there’s something I understood by gathering your data,” Kabuto says, and both Minato and Naruto look at Kabuto quickly. “You have no ninja ability, unlike Sasuke!” Minato’s eyes harden. Kabuto is just asking to get his ass handed to him for speaking to his son like that. Naruto looks shocked, and Jiraiya looks at Minato quickly. At the ending of the sentence, Naruto looks incredibly angry and Minato looks from Kabuto to Orochimaru, then back again. Tsunade is still shaking, and Minato stays still. Shizune wipes some of the blood from Tsunade’s face, and Minato starts thinking a little.

“Please don’t push it too far alone. I am your attendant, so…” Shizune says, looking at Tsunade with a calming smile. Minato appreciates that she is trying to calm Tsunade down, but it doesn’t look like it’ll work.

“Even with a fierce look, you’re just a cute Genin who’s a fish out of water. Admittedly, I was anticipating the monster dwelling in side you, but now with the Legendary Sannin before me you leave something to be desired,” Kabuto smiles, looking at Naruto with contempt. Now this is going to far, and why do so many people know about Naruto having the Kyuubi sealed inside him? But no one knows that it’s only half, with the possible exception of Jiraiya. “You’re just a puny zero. So, if you meddle… I’ll kill you.” Kabuto finishes. Minato let’s that smile stay on Kabuto’s face for a moment, and right before he teleports to Naruto’s seal he forms a Rasengan. He quickly grabs Kabuto and forces the Rasengan against Kabuto and quickly put’s a seal on him before Kabuto even knows what happened. Minato’s eyes look icy, and Jiraiya’s eyes narrow.

“Minato, you shouldn’t—” Jiraiya says, but Minato looks at Jiraiya, and Jiraiya stops talking because he knows that he can’t really do anything about it. Naruto is just standing there shocked, and Kabuto is just stuck in a rock. Kabuto manages to get up, but then just falls. Orochimaru quickly looks at Minato.

“Looks like you didn’t act quick enough,” Jiraiya says, looking at Kabuto. Kabuto gets up, and Minato frowns. Looks like he doesn’t have good enough chakra control in this form to get a killing blow with Rasengan. Kabuto jumps over to Orochimaru and looks at the group. Kabuto is breathing heavily, with his arm and stomach area bleeding. Kabuto takes out a pill, and Shizune’s eyes narrow.

“A plasma pill!” Shizune recognizes, looking at the pill.

“A plasma pill?” Naruto repeats, looking confused.

“So he’s trying to replenish the lost blood, huh,” Jiraiya says, still sweating slightly.

“That kid is a medical ninja, the same as me…” Shizune looks at Kabuto, seeing the blood coming out of his hand.

“The blood is gushing nicely, eh Kabuto?” Orochimaru says, glancing at Kabuto.

“Lord Orochimaru… Please take off the bandage on your left arm,” Kabuto asks, looking at Orochimaru. Minato’s eyes harden, and he watches as Orochimaru takes off the bandage. Looks like the tension is only getting higher, and it looks like he’ll have to go through a battle as he feared.

He can only hope he can last through it.


	9. Chapter 9

     Minato looks back at Tsunade, wondering if Tsunade will get over her fear of blood. Maybe, but maybe not. “Shizune!” Jiraiya says. “You take care of the kid with glasses! I’ll take Orochimaru.”

 “Alright!” Shizune replies, and Minato looks towards Jiraiya, wondering what he will do. Naruto looks a bit frustrated that he doesn’t get to fight either of them, but Minato doesn’t see a problem with that.

 “Tsunade, rest your body with medical ninjutsu,” Jiraiya orders, looking at Tsunade.

 “Then… What about me?” Naruto asks, looking confused. Minato sighs.

 “You guard Tsunade with Tonton,” Minato says. Jiraiya looks at Minato, and Naruto looks scandalized like he said Naruto will get no ramen for a week.

 “What?! I want to fight too, even I can—” Naruto argues, sounding frustrated. Minato smiles slightly, it’s all so similar.

 “You sound just like Kushina,” Minato murmurs, looking at Naruto. Naruto doesn’t hear what Minato says of course, because of how frustrated he is, but Minato is fine with that.

 “No, you will not fight! Like that four-eyed kid said, right? You’re on a different level. The opponent is a Sannin like me, and the man who killed the Third Hokage. An eye for an eye… I’m the only one who can fight him!” Jiraiya responds and looks at Minato for the last part. Minato stiffens slightly, knowing that Jiraiya is right even though he really doesn’t want to let Jiraiya fight Orochimaru alone. “And that four-eyed kid possesses the same level of power as Kakashi.” Naruto looks immensely frustrated, and Minato knows he won’t listen.

 “Okay… Then Shadow Clo—” Naruto says, before Minato interrupts him.

 “Hold it. Don’t use the Shadow Clone Jutsu, it would be a waste of chakra with them as our opponents,” Minato says, looking at Naruto.

 “What?” Naruto says, looking at Minato. “But you are also a kid, like me you don’t have authority over me!” Jiraiya looks like he is about to burst out laughing, and Minato just has this permanently exhausted look on his face.

 “Yup, just like Kushina alright,” Minato grumbles. He has a smile on his face, but he knows he looks irritated.

 “He’s right though, Naruto. And in fact, he does have authority over you, because he was my disciple before you,” Jiraiya replies, somehow not laughing in his face. Naruto looks upset, and Minato takes that irritated look off his face.

     “Now then, let’s get this thing started,” Jiraiya says with a smile. Minato quickly readies one of his kunai, preparing to fight. Kabuto puts some blood from his right hand on his finger, then swipes the bloody finger across a summoning seal on Orochimaru’s arm while at the same time Jiraiya bites his thumb and makes it bleed a little bit before putting that blood on his palm. Both Jiraiya and Kabuto do the hand sign sequence for the summoning jutsu and summons their respective animals.

It’s utterly disappointing.

     Kabuto summons two giant snakes, one for him and Orochimaru respectively, but Jiraiya summons a small orange frog with a jacket. Jiraiya looks down at the frog.

 “Hi,” the frog says while Jiraiya and Naruto are completely shocked, and Minato sighs. This is terrible.

 “HUH?!” Naruto cries out, his hands on his head.

 “What is this?! What the heck is going on!” Jiraiya yells, not too happy about this.

 “Long time no see,” the frog says, looking at Naruto. So apparently Naruto has summoned this frog before. Orochimaru chuckles, staring down at Jiraiya.

 “It looks like your stupidity still hasn’t healed, eh, Jiraiya,” Orochimaru says, and Minato looks up at him. “That’s too much for you even with no ability.” The frog starts getting a little bit annoyed, even though it’s not like it can do anything about it. “It seems like Tsunade got you with something. You are such a disgraceful guy as always, Jiraiya.” Naruto starts looking even more frustrated, and he bites his thumb and does the hand sequence for the Summoning Jutsu. Minato’s eyes widen for a moment, realizing that Jiraiya had him sign the toad contract.

But it’s just as disappointing.

     Naruto just summons a small, pale yellow frog. “Why?” Naruto says, looking down at the frog in despair. “WHY?!” Naruto says again, getting incredibly frustrated.

 “Hello!” the new frog says, while Naruto slowly calms down.

 “Hey, Gamatatsu. Why did you come out?” The orange frog says, looking at who is apparently Gamatatsu.

 “Oh, Brother Gamakichi. It’s the first time I’ve been summoned,” Gamatatsu says, raising his hands a little bit. “It’s the first time I’ve been summoned. I-I wonder if I can do my best?” The frog continues, waving his arms a little bit. Minato looks simply disappointed.

 “Idiot. Get some snacks or something and hide,” Gamakichi replies, and Minato sighs. This isn’t going well at all. Naruto simply looks depressed now, and Minato looks at the two frogs.

 “What? I can get some snacks? Goody-goody,” Gamatatsu replies, obviously not knowing why he has to hide.

     “Here I go,” Orochimaru says before his snake charges down towards the group. Jiraiya frowns, looking up at the snake. “I’ll take Jiraiya. I leave the rest to you.” Kabuto’s snake also starts charging down at them, and Minato frowns.

 “It’s unfortunate… Here I also wanted to fight Lord Jiraiya, one of the Sannin,” Kabuto replies, with an evil grin on his face. Minato quickly picks up Naruto and jumps back, putting Naruto back on the ground right before the snakes crash into the ground. Shizune carries Tsunade and jumps from rock to rock while Minato does the same. He sees Kabuto go forward to punch Shizune, but he’s kicked in the side of the head by Minato before Kabuto can connect the punch. Kabuto crashes into the ground, and Minato realizes that when he wasn’t watching Naruto had gone forward and started looking for Kabuto. But one of the snakes suddenly appears out of the debree and eats Naruto. This isn’t good.

 “NARUTO!” Jiraiya yells out, his attention diverted.

     “Your opponent is me,” Orochimaru says, as his snake charges towards Jiraiya. Jiraiya looks back, and Minato jumps from rock to rock until he is closer to Jiraiya. Jiraiya does a short hand sign sequence, creating a dark swamp, trapping the snakes. The swamp is too small to sink the snakes, but at least they can’t move. Orochimaru stumbles a bit as his snake sinks a little bit, and Minato jumps on a rock next to Jiraiya.

 “Dang it! I can’t sink them completely with such a puny swamp,” Jiraiya says, landing on the snake Orochimaru is on. Minato follows him, and Jiraiya looks at him with a ‘I don’t like what you’re doing’ stare that Minato knows all too well. Minato doesn’t really care at the moment though. Jiraiya looks at Orochimaru, a frown appearing on his face. Minato quickly looks down, seeing Shizune fighting Kabuto. The fight isn’t going to well, and Minato goes down there to help.

     “My leg tendons!” Shizune cries out, falling to the ground. Kabuto cut the muscles inside her leg tendons with a chakra scalpel, making it so she can’t stand up. Minato frowns, and throws a kunai at Kabuto who easily deflects it. He uses it to teleport right behind Kabuto, cutting him with another kunai knife and kicking him away. On the other side of the battle field, Naruto forces open the snake’s mouth and finally gets out of it much to Minato’s relief. Minato is already feeling the start of chakra exhaustion, but he ignores it. That isn’t one of the best decisions he’s made. However, Naruto then gets hit by the snake again and is thrown into a rock.

 “Naruto!” Minato yells out, looking towards him before realizing he let his guard down. Kabuto nearly cuts the muscles in Minato’s arm, but Minato gets away just in time. One of the snakes goes under into the swamp, and Jiraiya and Orochimaru are still fighting.

     “Here I go,” Orochimaru says, charging at Jiraiya and his neck extending with a snake’s insane smile. Jiraiya quickly activates his Needle Jizo, but because of the drug the jutsu isn’t working well. Orochimaru jumps, kicking the jizo, and some of the spikes go through his foot but he digs his foot in then bites Jiraiya’s neck because the jizo can’t protect him. “Even if we both have handicaps, you won’t one-up me… Give up now.” Kabuto punches Shizune away, and Minato quickly finishes a hand sign sequence and activates a jutsu. _Wind Style: Air Bullets!_ Minato shoots highly compressed air bullets towards Kabuto, nearly all of them missing except two. Minato frowns, knowing that since his chakra is limited, he won’t be able to make a jutsu strong enough to kill with. He can at least injure Kabuto, though. He suddenly starts coughing and falls to the ground. Kabuto looks confused for a moment, knowing that he didn’t hit Minato, but then smiles. He kick Minato into a rock, and kicks Shizune to the side, some blood splattering on Tsunade again. She starts shaking, and Minato is struggling to get up.

 “MINATO!” Jiraiya yells out, concerned. Minato stays on the ground for a moment, coughing up some blood. He winces in pain and gets up just to see Kabuto walk towards Tsunade and put a hand near her, which Tsunade smacks away, obviously terrified. Not from Kabuto, but some other trauma.

     “Please hang on, Lady Tsunade… The Sannin name, which Lord Orochimaru is also called, will cry!” Kabuto says, before starting to kick Tsunade into the ground. Minato tries to run over there but falls on his knees instead.

 “My body’s heavy…” Naruto says, looking towards Kabuto and Tsunade. Minato tries to get up but can’t.

     “Too think you were once called the village madness would ferry around such a kid and struggle tirelessly for the village… You’ve really fallen, haven’t you?” Orochimaru says, standing by Jiraiya who has dispelled the Needle Jizo. “I have a keen eye to discern ability. And that kid is mediocrity in my eyes.” Orochimaru looks towards Naruto, who is struggling to get up to stop Kabuto from beating up Tsunade. Jiraiya smiles.

 “It’s precisely for this reason that I don’t need the Uchiha kid. It’s no fun raising a genius who’s good from the start,” Jiraiya replies, looking at Orochimaru in the eyes.

 “So, you can’t leave him alone because it’s like you’re looking at your old self?” Orochimaru bites back with a smile. Minato tries to get up again but doesn’t even move this time. “That kid can’t beat Uchiha who inherited the inherent Sharingan Shinobi skill. And that’s because Naruto doesn’t possess the Sharingan. Shinobi ability is about whether one can use and master all the jutsu in the world. Ninja refers to one who can use Ninjutsu.”

 “Shinobi ability is no such thing. You still don’t get it?” Jiraiya responds with a smile. Orochimaru frowns for a moment, looking at Jiraiya. “A ninja… Is one who endures.” Orochimaru smiles again.

 “It’s a difference of opinion, huh,” Orochimaru says.

 “I’ll teach you one thing. What’s most important for Shinobi ability isn’t the number of jutsu one possesses. What’s important is…” Jiraiya continues. Minato sees Naruto finally reach Tsunade as Kabuto pulls another punch. “The mettle not to give up!” Jiraiya finishes, as Naruto blocks Kabuto’s punch with his forehead protector. Minato is shocked and tries to get up. He finally manages to get up, and he supports himself against the rock for a moment. Kabuto looks extremely angry and shocked at how Naruto blocked his attack, and Minato manages to start walking.

 “Enough already… You jerk!” Naruto says, starting to form the Rasengan again.

 “The mettle to not give up… He possesses that.” Jiraiya says, and Naruto charges at Kabuto with the Rasengan, but Kabuto dodges and uses his chakra scalpel on Naruto’s leg, making it so Naruto can’t use one of his legs.

     “It seems you got a cracked thigh bone in your left leg from the battle with the snake. Well, you can still move if it’s just the bone. But it’s impossible now… The lateral muscle in your right leg is completely cut off,” Kabuto says, laughing. “Are you scared of me? Do you want to run away from here? Naruto, as I recall, you whooped it up like this big during the first Chunin Exam.” Naruto looks shocked, remembering that moment. “’Don’t mess with me. I won’t run away. I’ll take it even if I’m a Genin for life... I’ll become Hokage at any cost so it’s okay with me. I’m not scared.’” Kabuto continues. “Can you whoop it up in the same way now?” Naruto looks a little more shocked, and he’s thinking. Minato realizes Kabuto isn’t paying attention to him and starts to form a small plan in his head. “You’re not a kid anymore, so you should stop whooping it up… Depending on the situation, when you want to give up and run away you should run away.” Naruto looks at Kabuto with a fierce glare, and Minato manages to take a step. “Oh my… What’s with that look? You’ll die! If you die, there’s no dreams or anything…” Kabuto continues. Minato smiles.

 “You’re wrong,” Minato calls out, and Kabuto looks towards him with a frown. “When you die, your dreams are for the ones you loved to get through despite the current situation. For the ones you love to achieve their own dreams!” Kabuto’s frown deepens, and Tsunade and Naruto look at him, Tsunade still shaking. She holds her necklace, closing her eyes. Kabuto then ignores Minato.

 “Kid’s think everything is easy. That’s why they talk about foolish dreams like nothing at all. That’s why they can’t give up,” Kabuto says, walking towards Naruto. “They chase after foolish dreams… And then die.” Kabuto says, starting to kick Naruto. Minato is about to teleport in front of Naruto and knock Kabuto back, but Naruto catches Kabuto’s foot much to his surprise.

 “Bastard!” Naruto says, throwing Kabuto back. “As for me… I stand by my words. That’s my Way of Ninja!” Naruto finishes, and Tsunade looks up to him shocked. Kabuto makes no motion but looks disappointed. He forms his chakra scalpel again.

 “You should’ve just stayed out of this…” Kabuto says, smacking Naruto in the cheek with the scalpel. He knocks Naruto on the ground in front of Tsunade, and Minato waits longer. Rushing will destroy the plan.

 “Why?” Tsunade asks, still shaking. She looks at Naruto, thinking. Naruto starts trying to get up again, and eventually gets up. “Why?!”

 “Old lady Tsunade…” Naruto starts, blood dripping from his mouth.

 “You’re still going to get up?” Kabuto asks, looking at Naruto. Naruto makes a hand sign and looks at Kabuto.

 “Just like our wager, I will definitely win that unlucky necklace from you,” Naruto says, and Tsunade’s eyes widen.

 “ _Shadow Clone Jutsu!”_ Naruto yells out, making a shadow clone. Why is he making shadow clones? It’s just a waste of chakra. Minato thinks that at first, but then sees what Naruto is going to do.

 “Enough… Don’t protect me, Naruto. Stop it!” Tsunade cries out, trying to get Naruto to stop. Kabuto takes out a kunai knife.

 “I told you that you’d die if you were obstinate like that, right?” Kabuto yells out, charging at Naruto. “If you die, there will be no dreams, nothing.”

 “Just get out of the way! Run away,” Tsunade cries out.

 “Humph… It’s okay,” Naruto says, and right before Kabuto hits him with the kunai knife he grabs Kabuto’s hand, stopping the kunai and keeping Kabuto’s hand stuck in one place. “I… I will absolutely not die, until I become Hokage!” Naruto makes a hand sign with his clone, grinning. Kabuto starts trying to free his hand, but it’s not working. “This way, I can hold onto you. Here I go!” Naruto says, his clone forming a Rasengan in his free hand. Kabuto looks shocked and tries to free his hand again.

 “It’s the same chakra movement as before!” Kabuto says. “No… This is different.” He says, as Naruto finishes the Rasengan.

 “I see… In order to gain a hand for suppressing chakra, the Shadow Clone…” Tsunade says, shocked.

 “Compress chakra and hold it completely…” Naruto says, repeating some instruction to himself as he forces the Rasengan into Kabuto. “ _RASENGAN!_ ” Kabuto screams in pain, and Minato quickly sees that Naruto is also pushing Kabuto in his direction, so he quickly starts concentrating and forming his own Rasengan. Right before Kabuto hits him, Minato attacks Kabuto with his own Rasengan and moves out of the way so he doesn’t get hurt. Kabuto crashes into a rock far away, a wound on his stomach. Minato is breathing heavily, still managing to stand up. Jiraiya and Orochimaru are fighting each other, but it suddenly stops as they look down at Naruto and Kabuto. Tsunade looks shocked that Naruto won the bet, but then Naruto’s eyes widen as he looks at Kabuto, who is standing. Naruto suddenly coughs out blood, and Minato quickly teleports over to him.

 “Naruto?!” Minato says, catching Naruto before he hits the ground. Naruto’s eyes close, and Minato quickly lays him down on the ground while Tsunade runs over.

     “You… Even after you received that Jutsu?!” Tsunade says, looking at Kabuto. Kabuto laughs a little bit, smiling.

“I gathered chakra in my stomach, and before I even received the jutsu I had started healing. The reason why Orochimaru favors me is not because of my use of jutsu or sense of jutsu… It is because of my recuperative power,” Kabuto finishes with a smile. The wound closes, and Minato’s eyes widen in shock. “The power to energize cells and make new cells.” Kabuto closes his eyes with a smile, as Tsunade looks at him shocked. Kabuto starts walking towards Naruto and Tsunade. “That jutsu… Seems it was Naruto’s last effort.” Kabuto says, but then he suddenly coughs out blood, his glasses breaking. Naruto twitches a little, and Tsunade quickly brings her head to the side against his chest to hear if his heartbeat is fading.

     “Arrhythmia!” Tsunade says, realizing what’s happening. She takes off Naruto’s jacket, and Minato goes to Naruto’s side. “Drat! His heart muscle is in tatters…” Minato’s eyes widen, and he doesn’t know what to do. “Why did that happen?” Tsunade realizes, but then focuses on saving Naruto. Tsunade stops shaking and cuts away Naruto’s shirt with a chakra scalpel.

 “Hey, big brother Gamakichi… Are we really getting a snack? That guy looks like he’s going to die,” Gamatatsu says from afar, behind a rock. Minato looks at the frog with a pointed look.

 “Y-you’re annoying! Be quiet!” Gamakichi replies, trying to get Gamatatsu to shut up. Minato looks at the seal, and Tsunade is trying to heal Naruto the best she can.

     “It’s all over for Naruto… I cut his heart’s Chakra Network which restores the strength through the Nine-Tails Chakra with all my strength... In order to eliminate the possibility that he could heal under his own power,” Kabuto gasps out, and Minato looks at him with a shocked look. Looks like he’ll have to take some heroic measures. “There’s no way he can recover… Even with you.” He starts building up his chakra, trying to get his half of the Kyuubi’s chakra go through Naruto to restore and help heal him. He puts his hand on Naruto’s chest, gasping for breath but still doing it. His hand is slightly surrounded by red chakra, and Kabuto looks completely shocked.

 “SHUT UP! I’ll kill you later…” Tsunade yells, focusing on healing Naruto. Tsunade starts silently crying in shock, realizing Naruto has stopped breathing. Minato increases the flow of Kyuubi chakra, wincing in pain. He knows this is just causing him to fade faster, but it’s worth it. Naruto suddenly raises his hand, grasping his hand around Tsunade’s necklace.

 “The bet… I won it,” Naruto says, passing out. Minato stops the flow of chakra, breathing harshly. Naruto is breathing again, and that’s all that matters.

 “I-It’s impossible…” Kabuto says, incomplete shock.

 “’Hokage is my dream,’ eh?” Tsunade says, picking up Naruto’s hand and healing the wound on it. “For the last time… Just one more time… I want to be on you.”

     “That child, he’s not well…” Orochimaru says, looking at Naruto with a smile.

 “Tsunade is a medical specialist. Don’t worry, there is no need to worry about Naruto’s body,” Jiraiya replies.

 “That’s not what I meant,” Orochimaru replies.

 “What do you mean? Your battle is with me, there’s no time to look away,” Jiraiya says with a frown. Orochimaru thinks, and then jumps down towards Naruto, Minato, and Tsunade. Jiraiya quickly follows, but Jiraiya is too slow. Orochimaru quickly turns his head toward Jiraiya, extending his tongue and grabbing Jiraiya’s foot with it. He then slams Jiraiya into the ground. His snake sword starts to appear, and he swings himself towards the small group around Naruto.

Right before Naruto gets hit, both Tsunade and Minato stay in front of him, blocking the sword. It doesn’t touch Minato, though.

     Orochimaru retracts his sword, as Tsunade starts to cough up blood. “Tsunade… You’re the only one who I wasn’t going to kill. If that child lives, there will be trouble in the future on a variety of levels. Don’t get in my way,” Orochimaru says.

 “This one child… This is one child… I will absolutely protect!” Tsunade replies, looking at Orochimaru in the eyes.

 “Trembling at the sight of blood, why would you, one of the Sannin, risk your life to protect that Genin kid?” Orochimaru responds with a smile. Tsunade coughs up some blood, breathing heavily.

 “To protect my hometown… The Leaf Village!” Tsunade says, her eyes narrowing. Orochimaru frowns, looking at Tsunade.

 “To protect the Leaf Village?” Orochimaru muses, looking at Tsunade. Tsunade looks back at Naruto.

 “Because this small child… Is the kid who will become Hokage someday…” Tsunade replies, and Orochimaru chuckles.

 “What utter nonsense. By the way… To hell with Hokage! Only a fool does that job,” Orochimaru says with a smile, and Tsunade’s eyes widen. Tsunade looks to the ground, her eyes narrowing and she stands up.

 “And now… I will also put my life on the line!” Tsunade finishes. Orochimaru’s eyes narrow, frowning. He smiles then.

 “If your life is worth throwing away for a kid like him, then dying now would be a fitting end!” Orochimaru yells, one of his snake swords appearing once again and slashes Tsunade’s chest diagonally. Tsunade slowly falls back, and Shizune finally wakes up again just to see Tsunade fall. Jiraiya’s eyes also open to this, shocked.

 “All that’s left is Naruto…” Orochimaru says, slowly approaching Naruto. He kicks Minato to the side, and he tries to get up but can’t.

 “Lady Tsunade!” Shizune cries out, seeing Tsunade on the ground. Jiraiya quickly makes a sign, hoping to do something in time, but Orochimaru swings his sword again.

Just to hit Tsunade again.

     Orochimaru’s sword retracts once again, and he looks at Tsunade completely shocked. Some blood leaks out of her mouth, dripping down onto Naruto. Orochimaru smiles. “You mean you’ll still protect that kid?!” Orochimaru says, smiling.

 “That’s what I says… From now…” Tsunade says, looking at Orochimaru with the fiercest glare Minato has ever witnessed, “I’m putting my life on the line!” Orochimaru’s eyes widen, both in anger and surprise.

 “You half-dead corpse!” Orochimaru cries out, kicking Tsunade away from Naruto. Tsunade is shaking again, and Minato keeps trying to get up, but he can’t even move. Orochimaru smiles again, walking closer to Naruto. “No matter how cool you try to be, your trembling doesn’t stop. You can’t get away from the curse of hemophobia. And yet, why would you take blows for that kid? Why would you battle for the Leaf?” Orochimaru continues. A few moments later, Tsunade’s trembling stops. Orochimaru stands there, completely shocked. Minato smiles, looking at Tsunade. She finally got over her fear of blood! Tsunade kicks Orochimaru in the chin, knocking him away. “No way! Tsunade’s trembling has… has stopped?” Orochimaru yells out, angered. He stays on the ground, as Tsunade stands.

 “That is because I am…” Tsunade starts, and Orochimaru starts to get up. “the Leaf Village’s Fifth Hokage!” The point on her forehead turns a dark magenta, and a sort of seal spreads across her body.

     “What are you saying you’ll do after all this time? You can’t fight with that wound even if you’ve conquered your fear,” Orochimaru says, getting up. Tsunade smiles and makes a hand sign.

 “W-wait! I’ll treat that wound, so don’t release the seal!” Shizune cries out, but it’s too late. Tsunade has already released the seal, and the now black seal vanishes from her skin. Orochimaru just stands there completely shocked, he doesn’t know what that is. Her wounds start steaming, as cells multiply at a tremendous rate to seal the wounds. Orochimaru laughs a little bit.

 “It looks like I’m not the only one who develops new Jutsu. What in the world is this jutsu?” Orochimaru asks.

 “Well… For many years I’ve stored chakra in my forehead. The mass of chakra stimulated a variety of proteins, and the number of times my cell divides sped to a dizzying rate… The cells rebuild, and all the organs and body systems are revitalized. It’s not the ability to restore, it’s the ability to reincarnate. That means I won’t die from battles.” Tsunade explains with a smile on her face, wiping some blood from her mouth on her thumb. Tsunade drags her thumb across her arm, and Minato realizes she’s doing the summoning jutsu. Knowing Jiraiya and Naruto won’t be able to summon Gamabunda, he puts some blood on his palm

 “Lady Tsunade!” Shizune cries out.

 “MINATO! Don’t you dare do what I think you’re going to do!” Jiraiya yells out, looking at Minato.

 “Lord Orochimaru!” Kabuto yells out, quickly getting up as Orochimaru jumps to him.

 “Hurry!” Orochimaru says, as Kabuto pulls Orochimaru’s sleeve up and drags a finger across a summoning seal. Minato teleports over to Jiraiya, and quickly does the hand sign sequence for the summoning jutsu at the same time as Tsunade and Orochimaru.

 “Summoning Jutsu!” The three of them cry out, and Minato knows he summoned Gamabunda. Much to Jiraiya’s disappointment, he did the summoning jutsu anyway even though he shouldn’t have. They rise up on their respective animals, Jiraiya and Minato on Gamabunda, Orochimaru and Kabuto on Manda, and Tsunade and Naruto on Katsuya.

 

This is going to be one hell of a fight.

 


	10. Chapter 10

     Minato is gasping for breath, and he instantly starts coughing and falls to his knees. “Eh? Who’s this bratling that’s summoned me?” Gamabunta says, as Minato just keeps coughing. “Wait, I recognize that chakra signature. Minato? What the blazes are you doing in that form?” Minato finally stops coughing with a very concerned Jiraiya hovering over him.

 “It wasn’t my choice, Gamabunta,” Minato replies sourly.

 “Oh! Dad!” Gamatatsu says from the ground.

 “Hm?” Manda says, looking at Gamatatsu, Gamakichi, and Tonton.

 “This isn’t good!” Gamakichi cries out. “Oh no, Gamatatsu! Let’s get out of here!” Gamakichi says, running off somewhere else.

 “What? Why though?” Gamatatsu responds, confused.

 “It doesn’t matter, just hurry up!” Gamakichi yells, running; or more accurately hopping as fast as he can away from Manda.

     “Manda and Orochimaru, Katsuya and Tsunade…” Gamabunta says, holding his pipe. “They all bring back memories…” He blows out some smoke from his pipe, thinking. “Shall we have a reunion or something, Minato?”

 “Listen to Jiraiya, not me. I’m not in a good enough condition to do basically anything,” Minato says, as Jiraiya takes his place. Gamabunta is a little confused by this, but he doesn’t question it.

 “Fool! You are summoned after such a long time, and you make all these boring jokes?” Jiraiya says, with a smile. “The time to conclude this long, fateful confrontation has come. I’m bringing Orochimaru down her and now!” Orochimaru’s eyes narrow, thinking.

     “Hey, Orochimaru…” Manda says, looking at Orochimaru. “Why’d you have to summon me to a place like this?! You… I’m going to eat you up!”

 “Don’t say that, Lord Manda… You’ll be duly rewarded,” Kabuto says quickly, trying to make sure he and Orochimaru aren’t eaten.

 “Who said I was talking to you?!” Manda responds, moving slightly. “Don’t be so flippant, brat!” Kabuto looks shocked for a moment, then looks to the side in frustration.

 “Hey Orochimaru… I expect you to prepare a sacrificial offering of one hundred people later,” Manda demands, looking back at the rest of the group.

     “Katsuya, take that kid to Shizune!” Tsunade says.

 “Yes ma’am,” Katsuya replies, a smaller version of herself growing on her head. The smaller version puts Naruto on her back and jumps off the main body and goes to Shizune, who is healing her ankles. Gamabunta chuckles a little, inhaling smoke from his pipe again and blows it in Manda’s face.

 “You… I’ll hand you out until you’re dry!” Manda yells out, looking at Gamabunta.

 “I’ve been wanting a snakeskin wallet…” Gamabunta says, putting a hand on his sword.

 “Orochimaru, you’ve sunk too deeply into vice! We are no longer comrades,” Jiraiya says, smiling.

 “Comrades? That word makes me shiver,” Orochimaru replies, laughing.

 “Today is the last day we are called Sannin!” Tsunade yells out, her eyes narrowing. Katsuya suddenly goes forward, spitting out acid slime at Manda, but Manda dodges around a rock and twists around her. Tsunade stumbles a little bit, frowning.

 “I’ll start with this one!” Manda says, getting ready to eat Katsuya. Right before he tries, Gamabunta lunges at Manda with his sword but misses, and Manda grabs the sword with his mouth. Gamabunta tries pulling the sword out, but he isn’t doing it very well. Manda laughs, looking at Gamabunta struggle. He constricts tighter on Katsuya, who then pops into hundreds of little clones as Tsunade jumps away. Katsuya reforms behind Gamabunta, and Manda lashes with his tail at him but Gamabunta flips away in time.

 “Here they come!” Jiraiya yells out.

 “I know!” Gamabunta replies, slightly irritated. It doesn’t take a lot to irritate Gamabunta, Minato think to himself. Manda throws the sword at Gamabunta but misses and it heads for Katsuya instead. Right before hitting Katsuya, the sword hits the ground. Tsunade uses the sword to get back onto Katsuya.

 “Tsunade! Stay away for a moment! Bunta, give me some oil!” Jiraiya says, doing a hand sign sequence.

 “Okay!” Gamabunta says, spitting out a large stream of oil while Jiraiya activates a fire style jutsu, creating a flamethrower right at Manda. It looks like Manda got engulfed by the flames by the way he screeches out in pain, but Minato doesn’t think that Manda is gone. “Humph… How’s that?”

 “Did it work?” Jiraiya asks, looking at the inferno he created. The fire fades a little, showing a shed snake skin. It would’ve been too easy to kill Manda that way. “No, that’s…” The snake skin falls apart, smoking.

 “Gamabunta! Under you!” Minato yells out, stumbling from the earth shaking under the enormous frog.

 “What?!” Gamabunta says, as Manda’s tail suddenly appears from the ground to attack him. Gamabunta grabs it, but Manda’s head appears from behind Gamabunta under the earth. “It’s tail?!” Right before Manda hits Gamabunta, Tsunade, with Gamabunta’s sword, impales Manda with it through the mouth. Gamabunta jumps back just in time.

 “Keep it shut!” Tsunade yells out, landing on the top of the sword. Orochimaru and Kabuto jump back, frowning. Orochimaru’s tongue quickly extends, looping around Tsunade’s neck trying to choke her.

 “Tsunade!” Jiraiya yells out, moving slightly. Orochimaru laughs slightly.

 “Well now, I can kill you by wringing your neck,” Orochimaru says, as Tsunade growls, moving a little bit.

     “My chakra…” Tsunade says, grabbing the tongue. “At this rate…” Tsunade gets her arms under the tongue, then forces it away from her neck. “Fine! It’s about time we put an end to this!” Tsunade yells out, turning towards Orochimaru and grabbing the tongue in a firm grip. She whips Orochimaru through the air, using his tongue.

 “R-ridiculous!” Orochimaru cries out, before being punched in the face by Tsunade. He goes fast towards the ground, but Tsunade counters the force and sends him up to her again.

 “Not done yet!” Tsunade says, jumping towards Orochimaru while punching him. Orochimaru dodges the first few punches but gets hit by the rest. She once again throws Orochimaru up, about to hit another punch, but misses because of her muscles acting up. Her eyes narrow, and she breathes harshly.

 “So, this is as far as you can go,” Orochimaru says with a smile, hanging in mid air with Tsunade still grabbing his tongue.

 “SHUT UP!” She says, letting go of his tongue and punching Orochimaru in the air.

 “LORD OROCHIMARU!” Kabuto yells out, as Orochimaru goes flying, but lands on Manda just in time. Tsunade gets another punch in, and Orochimaru desperately tries to run away.

 “I won’t let you go! You will stay with me to the end!” Tsunade yells, and Minato just stays on Gamabunta watching this happen. Tsunade jumps in front of Orochimaru again, punching and kicking him across the field. “Take this!” Orochimaru is knocked back, but then his tongue extends once again and wraps around Tsunade as he swings himself to her and takes out one of his snake swords. Right before Tsunade is hit, she grabs the sword with her legs, twisting around it much to Orochimaru’s surprise. She knocks him into the ground as he retracts his tongue and sword. Tsunade keeps punching Orochimaru, but nothing is really happening. She knocks him back again and stops to catch her breath before walking towards Orochimaru while making a hand sign sequence and infusing her hand in chakra before punching Orochimaru in the face. “IT’S OVER!” Orochimaru is knocked into the sword and falls on Manda. Kabuto is completely shocked, and Minato starts coughing again.

     “That’s it,” Jiraiya says, looking at Orochimaru.

 “Yeah,” Gamabunta agrees.

 “Lord Orochimaru…” Kabuto says, picking him up.

 “Putting me in this position! I want to eat and kill you, but I can’t even chew you up with this hole in my mouth… Next time if we meet again, be prepared!” Manda yells out, before disappearing into a huge cloud of smoke. Tsunade falls to her knees, completely exhausted, but Minato hasn’t stopped coughing. He finally stops, starting to shake a little bit from being both exhausted and fading. Jiraiya gasps for a moment, looking at Orochimaru who is standing even though he was knocked in the face by Tsunade’s chakra infused punch.

 “Tsunade… Even though you won’t heal me, I still have one way,” Orochimaru says, gasping for breath. “A way to resurrect these arms.” Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Minato look shocked, and Minato tries to stand up but can’t. This is going well. “The Leaf Village… I’ll destroy it without fail!” Orochimaru continues, part of his face changed to that younger form Minato saw in the Chunin Exams. Tsunade’s eyes widen in shock, recognizing it. “At that time, it would be nice if we could meet again… My comrades, Tsunade and Jiraiya.” Tsunade’s eyes narrow again, frowning. Orochimaru slowly sinks into the ground. “The true elixir of life. That’s my… Immortality!” Kabuto smiles and disappears in a puff of smoke.

 “Wait!” Jiraiya calls out, before stumbling a bit but it’s too late. Orochimaru and Kabuto are already gone.

     A few minutes later, Minato, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Shizune are standing by Naruto, Katsuya and Gamabunta gone. “Tsunade, you haven’t changed. You’re no good at wagers,” Jiraiya says, smiling. Tsunade seems lost in thought, and Minato thinks a little bit. He knows he used a ton of chakra in the battle, and he feels like standing her unharmed seems a bit too good to be true. Tsunade shakes slightly, wincing in pain.

 “At any time now, the side effects…” Tsunade says, trembling.

 “Lady Tsunade…” Shizune says, concerned. Tsunade starts to look old.

 “It’s nothing. When I rest in town, my young form will return. Then when Naruto wakes up we will return to Konoha,” Tsunade says, looking down at Naruto.

 “Tsunade…” Jiraiya says, looking at Tsunade disapprovingly.

 “Starting now, don’t call me Tsunade…” Tsunade says. “Call me the Fifth Hokage!” Minato smiles, but still thinking this all might be too good to be true.  
  


Is it?

 


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i basically rewrote this entire chapter i didnt like how it originally went

     It's the next morning, and Minato doesn't wake up feeling happiness and sunshine. He wakes up coughing instead and wakes up Naruto. He knew being fine after that exhausting battle was too good to be true, yet he is still surprised anyway. “Hey, can you not cough as loud or something?” Naruto asks grumpily, still in his walrus pajamas. Minato looks at Naruto, giving him a long look that intimidates Naruto for just three seconds because then he just starts coughing again, much to Naruto's concern. “Hey wait, is that blood, dattebayo?!” Naruto says quickly as Minato finally stops coughing.

 “Yes, that is blood. Do you know where Tsunade is?” Minato asks quickly, holding a hand against his mouth. Naruto looks immensely concerned, and Minato can’t help but feel bad for him.

 “Nope,” Naruto says, thinking.

 “Then wake up Jiraiya,” Minato says after going back to coughing. Naruto looks at Minato for a moment, before realizing that this is the perfect opportunity to jump on the bed. Naruto quickly gets on Jiraiya's bed before jumping up and down, yelling loudly.

 “WAKE UP PERVY SAGE!! IT'S MORNING I THINK!” Naruto says, and after seeing Jiraiya roll over he opens the window only to see that it's nearly midnight. Naruto looks at Minato, obviously not happy about being waken up this early.

 “Ugh, let me sleep...” Jiraiya groans, covering his face with a pillow until Minato starts coughing so hard that it looks like he is coughing his lungs out. He's shaking too, and practically keels over. “OKAY THEN! I guess I'm not going to sleep. Naruto, get your stuff and don't even bother getting out of your pajamas. We probably don't have that much time.” Naruto looks incredibly conflicted, but he quickly takes his walrus hat off and stuffs it into his backpack before putting it on. Minato tries to sit up again, but because he is in so much pain he can't move at all. He tries one more time, but then quickly gives up after he starts coughing again.

 “Can't... Move...” Minato gasps out, the extreme pain making him want to instantly curl in on himself but he can't move at all. Naruto is visibly panicking, and obviously doesn't know what to do.

 “PERVY SAGE THIS IS TERRIFYING, DATTEBAYO!” Naruto yells out, his hands on his head. He's obviously never seen someone this sick before, and he probably won't ever again. At least Minato hopes not. Naruto figuratively 'met' Minato just a couple weeks ago, and then suddenly Minato starts dying. Minato just hopes if he does fade that Naruto doesn't figure out that Minato is his dad literally two seconds after he died. That would be terrible and cruel.

 “I KNOW, YOU AREN'T THE ONLY ONE PANICKING!” Jiraiya replies loudly as Minato coughs harder. Jiraiya picks up Minato, running out the door as Naruto follows him after realizing he forgot to put on his shoes. Minato stops coughing for a minute, wearily looking up at Jiraiya as they reach Tsunade's hotel room. “I told you not to do the Summoning Jutsu!” Jiraiya says as he knocks on the hotel room's door before giving up and just opening it.

     “Jiraiya what the hell—” Tsunade starts, before being interrupted by Jiraiya as Naruto panics in his pajamas.

 “Tsunade, we have a problem!” Jiraiya says, still holding Minato. Minato suddenly starts coughing again, shaking even after he finishes coughing.

 “Fading...” Minato chokes out. “I can't... ****breathe****...” Naruto looks even more panicked, and Tsunade quickly wakes up Shizune and packs up in a new record of two seconds.

 “Hurry up! We have to get to Konoha as soon as possible!” Tsunade yells out at them as Minato shakes slightly. In only a couple of minutes, they are already running through the trees while Jiraiya carries Minato who is currently coughing his lungs out while Naruto continues to panic. This is not going well, and Minato can't help but think that they probably won't make it in time. But it's nice to have some hope that he will, right?

>|<          >|<          >|<

     “What the heck is going on, dattebayo?!” Naruto cries out, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. It's been an hour since they had left the town, and Naruto is starting to get exhausted. They've only made it three fourths of the way to Konoha so far! Minato starts coughing again, and Minato tries to think up a way to get to Konoha faster, but at the moment he doesn't have one. Forcing his way out of the pain, he actually gets an idea. Minato tries to speak for a moment before quickly giving up and waiting until he has a tiny bit more strength.

 “Use... Kunai...” Minato manages to get out, looking up at Jiraiya. Since Minato wasn't the one using it, his chakra wouldn't get drained any further. Jiraiya quickly looks down at Minato, frowning.

 “Are you sure?” Jiraiya replies hesitantly. Minato nods silently and Jiraiya takes out one of Minato's Hiraishin blades from his coat. “Alright everyone, hold on!” Jiraiya says, and then using the Hiraishin he teleports them to the Mountainside Images.

     They quickly run towards the hospital, Naruto and Shizune being incredibly dizzy. Minato instantly starts coughing again as they pass by a very confused ANBU, and he just can't stop shaking. His vision slowly starts to fade, and he struggles to stay awake. He doesn't want to be in that darkness again.

More like he can't be in that darkness again.

They finally reach the hospital, and Minato is back to coughing. Tsunade and Jiraiya burst in and the nurses try to stop them but most of them stop after seeing Minato. Some particularly stubborn ones stay there to argue, but Tsunade punches them into a wall. “GET OUT OF THE WAY! WE MAY ONLY HAVE MINUTES UNTIL HE FADES FOREVER!” Tsunade yells, angry that the nurses tried to stop her. As they reach one of the emergency care rooms, Minato's eyes close and it goes black no matter how much he tries to stop it.

 

Then he passes out.

>|<          >|<          >|<

     Kakashi slowly wakes up, not too happy. He knows he isn’t fully healed, yet here he is, at most likely three am, staring at the ceiling while the door to his hospital room is open. He groans, hearing people running and the complaints of the nurses. “GET OUT OF THE WAY! WE MAY ONLY HAVE MINUTES UNTIL HE FADES FOREVER!” He hears someone yell, and he really wants to see what’s going on, but can’t move well. At least he can see out the door. He sees Jiraiya and Tsunade run past the door, and his eyes widen slightly, recognizing the kid in Jiraiya’s arms. That’s the kid who seemed to have vanished just so he could get yelled at by the nurses! His eyes narrow, thinking. How did that kid get into such a condition? Kakashi looks up at the ceiling, recognizing the sounds of a very panicked Naruto.

 “Naruto just go see Kakashi! You’re just going to distract Tsunade if you keep panicking every few seconds, and the kid will die!” Jiraiya says, and Naruto quickly complies and walks into Kakashi’s room.

 “Hm? What’s happening outside?” Kakashi asks, turned towards Naruto.

 “Oh, Kakashi-sensei! You’re awake!” Naruto says, looking a bit more cheerful.

 “I can’t move though,” Kakashi replies sourly. “Now, what was happening out there?”

 “So, when me and Pervy sage first got out of the village, some kid was following us! Pervy sage didn’t even notice until the kid started coughing and fell out of the tree he was hiding in,” Naruto starts, and Kakashi’s eyes widen slightly. He can’t think of a kid who has stealth skills that good in the village, except that random kid who just randomly appeared during the Chunin Exams. “Since me and Pervy Sage were kind of far away from the village, we let him come with us. He acted a little weird, though.”

 “Weird how?” Kakashi asks, thinking.

 “He looked shocked and in a little bit of pain maybe when he saw Pervy Sage? He asked if you sent him, but the kid said that the last time he saw you was when he was running away from you in the hospital. You were yelling about how he should come back to his room, so you don’t get yelled at by the nurses! Did you actually get yelled at by the nurses?” Naruto asks, eager for this information. It’s that kid, right.

 “Yes, they did yell at me. Continue,” Kakashi says, trying to gracefully change the subject.

 “We said we were looking for Tsunade, and he said he had a personal reason for seeing old lady Tsunade that he couldn’t tell us. Jiraiya also recognized him as the kid who tried to protect old man Third. He seemed pretty annoyed when I said he was a kid, and that was the only time he was truly annoyed with me on that entire trip,” Naruto mused, thinking back. “When we reached an inn, I tried to argue that I could go farther but then Pervy sage said something about how a disciple should obey his master, and the kid just looked like he was remembering the funniest thing, but quickly hid it. He also looked incredibly disappointed at Pervy sage after I asked him about that new jutsu.” Kakashi goes over this information, thinking to himself. “We went upstairs, and he was making these weird seal thingies. He also took some of my kunai when I wasn’t looking! Then someone knocked on the door, and I answered it. But there was Sasuke’s older brother outside! He said they were from the Akatsuki… I tried to use that weird red chakra, but the other guy who looked like a shark just cut through it with his sword. Sasuke showed up and then was beaten up miserably, and the shark guy said that he should cut off one of my legs. Right as he was about to chop off my leg, one of the kunai that the kid was putting the seals on was thrown in front of us and the kid seemed to teleport in front of me to block the attack!” Naruto said, looking excited. Kakashi’s eyes widen, knowing only one person who uses, or used to use a technique like that. “Oh, and he was using a transformation too! He had straight brown hair before with green eyes, but when the transformation dispelled, he looked like me! It was really weird.” Kakashi’s eyes narrow again, thinking.

 “Did you get that kids name?” Kakashi asks, looking up at the ceiling in deep thought.

 “Yeah, but when Pervy sage appeared to save me, he looked at the kid like he recognized him and was completely shocked. The kid yelled something about how Pervy sage should get his head out of the past and help out, and then Guy appeared after the shark guy and Sasuke’s brother disappeared and accidentally knocked him out with a kick to the face because Guy didn’t realize that we weren’t enemies because he didn’t bring his mirror,” Naruto said, scratching his head.

 “His name, Naruto,” Kakashi says, only a little bit irritated.

 “Pervy sage said something like ‘It’s been a long time, Minato’, so the kid’s name is Minato I guess. What about it?” Naruto replies obviously confused and completely oblivious. Kakashi’s eyes widen, and he shifts enough to sit up much to Naruto’s surprise.

 “Get Jiraiya over here immediately,” Kakashi says shortly. “He has a lot of explaining to do.” Naruto looks surprised but goes out and starts looking for Jiraiya. Could it be him? Well it has to be, no one else can use the Flying Thunder God technique that quickly in such a stressful situation.

 

This situation is starting to get pretty hairy.

 

 


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> omg im so sorry that this chapter took so long aaaa please enjoy i'll work on the 13th now

     Kakashi waits silently, sitting up in his hospital bed not in the best of moods. He’s been waiting for Naruto to come back for over an hour now, and that’s starting to test his patience a little bit. He isn’t the most patient guy, but the possibility of your sensei who was dead for twelve years is randomly alive again does that to people. Naruto finally comes back in, looking a bit confused but also relieved. “I couldn’t find him, but he says something about the kid being stable now! And that Tsunade just needs to do one more medical ninjutsu thingy,” Naruto says, happy. That eases his mind a little bit, at least. “Why did you need to talk to Pervy sage anyway?” Naruto asks, looking confused.

 “Reasons,” Kakashi responds evasively, because he can’t think up an answer now to give Naruto. Naruto instantly looks irritated, and Kakashi muses to himself silently. “You can go bother Jiraiya now.” Kakashi says shortly, his thoughts clouded by Minato just showing up out of nowhere.

At least one of the people he cared for is back.

>|<          >|<          >|<

It’s so cold.

What had happened in that period of unconsciousness? He doesn’t know. What has happened, he asks himself. He can’t remember anything.

He can’t remember anything at all.

    He reaches out to touch something but only comes across an invisible wall separating him from someone. Who is she? He wonders, looking at her bright red hair hoping for some semblance of memory in himself. It’s dark, an inky black void pulling away at him and he doesn’t know how long he’ll be able to stay in this place before going mad. He tries once again to go through the wall but fails to do so. What is going on here? He tries to think, his thoughts interrupted by growling from behind him. He quickly turns around, trying to identify the source of the growling but it seems to be coming from everywhere. He walks forward, a little reluctant to leave the wall. He doesn’t know why he feels this way, and he finally identifies the source of the growling. It’s a giant fox, with nine tails and he seems to finally be remembering something. But before he can pull his thoughts back together, the fox strikes.

Minato wakes up right before the claws pierce through him.

     When Minato wakes up, his thoughts are basically tripping over themselves while trying to figure out what the hell is going on. He’s in the middle of some sort of complicated medical jutsu, and he can’t really figure out what’s going on until a couple moments later. The medical ninja look a little surprised that he has woken up, especially because they are in the middle of transferring him to his original body, and he makes sure he doesn’t move because he doesn’t know what will happen if he does. He only gets a couple more minutes of thinking before he passes out again, and he didn’t really want to pass out to be honest. But the world doesn’t seem to want to do things Minato wants to do, and Minato doesn’t like that very much. But he’ll have to deal with it.

>|<          >|<          >|<

     It’s been a day since that kid got into the hospital, and Naruto doesn’t have the slightest clue of an idea on what’s going on, and it doesn’t look like he is going to get an answer much to his disappointment. He doesn’t know why Pervy sage recognized the random kid apparently named Minato and doesn’t know why Kakashi-sensei knew Minato even though he didn’t even know the kid’s name before to Naruto’s incredibly spotty knowledge. And why did Kakashi-sensei have to talk to Pervy sage anyway? Naruto doesn’t get any of this at all, and his thoughts are going at one hundred miles an hour. What is with Sasuke and wanting to kill his brother? Speaking of Sasuke, where is Sasuke right now? That Orochimaru bastard might’ve already gone after him! Naruto gets out of bed, only to hear a knock on the door. With his pajamas still on, he answers the door drowsily. “Shikamaru? What are you doing here so early in the morning?” Naruto asks, his eyes a little out of focus. He just woke up, and really wants to get back to sleep.

 “Sasuke slipped out of the village and we and a couple others are on a mission to get him back,” Shikamaru says, looking only a little bit less tired than Naruto.

 “WHAT?! YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!” Naruto yells out, looking at Shikamaru in complete and utter shock. At the loud noise, Shikamaru winces and puts a finger in his ear.

 “You’re such a drag starting so early in the morning…” Shikamaru says, looking at Naruto with a bit of apprehension. Naruto looks angry as Shikamaru thinks to himself, and Naruto just barely thinks out loud. ‘That jerk!’

 “Hey, just wait here! I’ll change clothes immediately!” Naruto says, turning and running into his apartment as his walrus hat falls off his head. Shikamaru looks shocked at this sudden change of temperament, which isn’t surprising. Only a couple of moments later when Naruto gets back outside, they are running down the street to go find another person. “So, do you have your eye on any other guys beside me that are   
excellent?”

 “Yeah… That person if he wasn’t in the hospital probably could help. But we must look for other people,” Shikamaru says, and Naruto looks confused. Minato, who is in the hospital? He can’t be that good, right? They reach a house, and Shikamaru knocks on the door. “Wake up! Hey!” Shikamaru yells out, looking at the paper door in slight frustration.

 “You said excellent guys, right…” Naruto says, looking disappointed.

 “Can’t be helped…” Shikamaru starts, sitting down as Naruto looks at him curiously. Shikamaru takes out a bag of chips and opens them, as Naruto looks down at him curiously.

 “Potato chips?” Naruto says, looking confused.

 “They’re barbecued meat flavor… You help out too!” Shikamaru says, passing a chip to Naruto. They eat the chips, and eventually get down to the last one. “Here he comes!” Shikamaru says, as he dumps the last chip into his hand. Choji suddenly opens the door and grabs the potato chip before sliding on his feet a little farther away.

 “Even if it is just potato chips, I won’t let anybody have the last piece no matter who you are,” Choji says, with a serious look on his face. Naruto looks a little bit disappointed and looks confused.

 “Choji and I have worked as a team for many years so coordinating with him is easiest for me,” Shikamaru says, looking at Naruto. Naruto looks very conflicted.

 “I UNDERSTAND THAT, BUT IN THIS KIND OF SITUATION ONE WOULD NORMALLY SOLICIT SHINO FIRST!” Naruto yells out, looking frustrated as Shikamaru once again puts a finger in his ear.

 “Oh, shut up,” Shikamaru says, not wanting to deal with this. Choji is about to eat the last potato chip, but Akamaru runs and jumps at him for it.

 “FAT CHANCE!” Choji yells out, eating the potato chip right before Akamaru gets it. Poor Akamaru freezes in the air, and falls to the ground, completely depressed. Kiba stands right behind Akamaru, his eyes closed with a smile.

 “Shino is on a special mission with his father,” Kiba says, opening his eyes. Naruto points at Kiba then looks at Shikamaru.

 “Hey… Don’t tell me that…” Naruto starts, before getting interrupted by Shikamaru.

 “Right. He’s in,” Shikamaru says, looking back at Naruto then to Kiba.

 “NO WAY!” Naruto yells out, putting his hands on his head in frustration. They move on towards the gate, as Shikamaru explains what the mission is about to Kiba and Choji.

     “I see… Sounds interesting,” Kiba says, running with them. “It looks like it was worth getting up early and going for a walk, doesn’t it?” Akamaru barks in agreement, and they continue towards the gate.

 “Hey Shikamaru, what about the other guys?” Naruto asks, looking at Shikamaru. Shikamaru looks back at him.

 “I’d like to take my time to look for some, but we’re pressed for time,” Shikamaru replies. “If we don’t find anybody else by the time we leave the village, it will just be us!” They pass by the Hokage building, seeing Neji and Lee a little further up the stairs. They wait by the stairs, and Neji helps Lee down them. Shikamaru explains the mission to Neji, and Naruto is starting to get tired of all these explanations.

 “I see,” Neji says, still supporting Lee so he doesn’t fall.

 “It’s a hassle, but the more people the better…” Shikamaru says, looking at Neji. Lee’s eyes go downcast, knowing that because of his operation he can’t go with them on the mission. Neji turns his head slightly towards Lee, seeing this.

 “Lee! Do what you need to do,” Neji says, looking at Lee. Lee looks a little surprised and looks at Neji and closes his eyes. He leans off from Neji, and much to everyone’s surprise goes in front of the stairs.

 “I’ll start climbing the steps alone starting tomorrow!” Lee proclaims, his back towards the group.

 “Lee…” Neji says, slightly concerned for his teammate’s well-being. That’s a surprise, Naruto thinks.

 “I’ll be fine! You go!” Lee says with a smile, his head turned back towards Neji. They reach the gate, and the gate opens as they consider their plan.

     “All right! Everybody follow me, dattebayo!” Naruto yells out, his fist raised in the air. Shikamaru looks at him and sighs, looking like he is already a tiny bit mentally exhausted from having to deal with Naruto.

 “Hey… Hey Naruto…” Shikamaru starts, looking at Naruto. “I’m supposed to be the squad leader. Though it is sure a drag…” Naruto looks at Shikamaru, his eyes narrowed slightly in confusion and slight suspicion.

 “You really think everything will be okay if things are left in your hands? You don’t seem very reliable…” Naruto replies, his body language showing slight distrust. Kiba stands up and looks at Naruto.

 “What’s up with you acting like the boss, Naruto?” Kiba asks, putting Akamaru in his jacket. “Although being ordered about by some unmotivated guy like Shikamaru doesn’t sit right with me either…” Choji looks at Kiba, a little bit frustrated. Akamaru barks in agreement.

 “But Shikamaru is already a Chunin! We have to follow his orders,” Choji says, still looking frustrated. “What that means is that the elders of the village recognized him as capable of being a leader.” Akamaru looks at Choji doubtfully, and Neji looks at the two.

 “Since that’s the case, come up with a strategy and plan,” Neji says, looking towards Shikamaru. “From what I heard, there are enemies and there’s a strong possibility that they’re going to ambush us.” Shikamaru takes a step forward, doing a sideways glance at Neji with a smile.

     “For a start, this is a rescue operation. We will be in the position of pursuit,” Shikamaru starts, his hands in his pockets. “In other words, the enemy can easily gain the initiative.” He looks back at everyone else, his smile vanishing, and he looks more serious. “Therefore, I will decide on a deployment formation, that will respond quickly to any assault by the enemy. If you ignore me and move of your own accord, we will all die.” Shikamaru finishes with a straight face. Kiba looks a bit shocked from this, and so does everyone else except Neji. Neji never seems to be stressed or ruffled by anything. “We will go in a single file formation. First, the all-important spearhead will be…” The other members of the group look to each other, wondering who it will be. “Kiba, that’s you!” Kiba looks slightly shocked by this, and Shikamaru explains. “You and Akamaru go on walks year-round and are therefore well-versed on the terrain and geography of the Land of Fire. And since your nose is very sensitive, you can track Sasuke with your sense of smell and you can distinguish booby traps that carry the enemy’s scent which makes them easy to find. And moreover, you and Akamaru as a pair will be extremely efficient in compensating the weaknesses of a single file formation to assault.” Shikamaru explains, looking at the rest of the group. “And… Second in line will be me, the squad leader. I can give orders as required in any situation from my position directly behind Kiba and can give orders to those behind me using only hand signals.” He keeps eye contact with the rest of the group, thinking. “And in the middle… In the number three position is Naruto.” Naruto smiles, looking at the rest of the group. “The middle position is best for you since you’re capable of executing quick moves and are able to respond immediately to anything in front or behind. You’re the cornerstone… And you have Shadow Clone Jutsu too.” Shikamaru looks at Choji. “And fourth in line is Choji. You don’t have speed, but your ability to strike is best among the squad members. Line leader Kiba, I, and Naruto will launch a surprise attack and I’ll use you to launch the deciding blow. In other words, your role is to attack the routed enemy.” Choji smiles, knowing he can trust Shikamaru. He has been on a team with him for a while, after all. “And then on the tail end will be you, Neji… You are assigned to the most difficult position of rear lookout. You will use your Byakugan to constantly check that there are no loopholes in the ranks.” Shikamaru finishes, kneeling on the ground as he takes out a scroll. “Got it? Take a careful look at this.” He takes out a pencil, starting to sketch a diagram to easily explain what he’s trying to accomplish. “Use this diagram to verify the radius of your assigned watch. Kiba watches the front, I’m responsible for a wide frontal view, Naruto watches the left, Choji watches the right, and Neji… Using your Byakugan you cover the entire area to the rear. I want to familiarize myself with our current military potential. Let me check the Ninja equipment each of you currently has…” Shikamaru says, while rolling up the scroll and putting it back in his Chunin jacket. “I will commit that to memory straight away. Any questions?” Shikamaru asks, getting up. Naruto shakes his head to say no, and no one else asks a question either. “If not, I want you to tell you the most important thing last.” Shikamaru starts, closing his eyes as the rest of the group members look at him. “Sasuke and I aren’t close friends. In fact, I don’t particularly like him.” Naruto makes a sound of frustration, looking at the ground. “However, he is also a Shinobi belonging to the Village Hidden in the Leaves. He is a comrade! Therefore, I will put my life on the line to help him! That’s the way of the Leaf Village. In this case, even I can’t just sit back and be a sluggard, because I am responsible for all of your lives.” The rest of the group members look at him with determination, all minute fractions of doubt gone.

 “Wow… You’re acting kind of like a Chunin, aren’t you?” Kiba says with a smile.

 “OK then, as soon as I check your ninja tools we’ll depart,” Shikamaru says, looking at the rest of the group. “Everybody take out your ninja tools!” Everyone in the group takes out their ninja tools, and Shikamaru looks over them. He looks in Choji’s and gives Choji a pointed look, as if he is warning Choji about something. No one except Choji catches it though, and Choji just nods. “All right let’s go!” Shikamaru says, turning towards the surrounding forest.

 “Wait!” A voice says from behind them. It’s Sakura, and she waits just inside the gate, her eyes downcast.

 “Sakura!” Naruto says, surprised and turned towards her.

 “I heard the whole story from Lady Hokage. I’m sorry, but I can’t take you along on this mission. Even you couldn’t convince Sasuke, right?” Shikamaru says, looking at Sakura. Naruto looks shocked and looks towards Shikamaru. “All that can be done now is for us to use force to convince him… Sakura, your role in this has ended.”

 “Which means Sakura… That you and Sasuke…?!” Naruto says, looking shocked. Sakura looks a little pained and starts silently crying.

 “Naruto… This is a once in a lifetime request… Please bring… Please bring Sasuke back,” Sakura says, looking at the ground as her tears fall. Naruto looks at Sakura for a moment, taking this in. “I couldn’t do it! I wasn’t able to stop him!” Sakura continues, as Naruto continues processing this. “At this point, the only person who would be able to stop Sasuke… Who would be able to save him… Is you, Naruto...” Sakura finishes, more tears falling. Naruto smiles slightly, looking a tiny bit towards the ground. He closes his eyes and makes a happy smile, looking at Sakura and gives her a thumbs up.

 “I’ll bring Sasuke back without fail! I promise that on my life!” Naruto promises, with a big smile.

 “Thank you…” Sakura says, still crying.

 “I’ll get him back for sure! I never go back on my word. That’s my Ninja way!” Naruto proclaims, that smile still on his face and his eyes open. “All right! Let’s hurry up and go!”

 “We’ve lost a little time… Let’s hurry!” Shikamaru says, turning towards Naruto.

 “OK!” Naruto says, and they walk towards the forest before breaking into a run. Hopefully they will reach Sasuke in time.

 

But not everything goes the way you want it to.

 


	13. Chapter 13

     Minato wakes up slowly, wincing slightly at the brightness of the light. He feels much better, and he quickly realizes with satisfaction that he is in his original body. He turns slightly, seeing a figure in a chair near him.

Kakashi? He should’ve known.

 “Looks like you’re finally awake, Minato-sensei,” Kakashi says, looking at Minato. Minato smiles slightly, noticing that Kakashi looks a bit worse for wear.

 “Is that a tear in your eye? What happened to you and your no rule breaking self?” Minato jokes, smiling. Kakashi looks shocked for a moment, then seems to smile under his mask.

 “It’s just some dust in my eye,” Kakashi replies.

 “Of course,” Minato says, looking towards the ceiling and getting into a sitting position. He sighs, feeling weary. He quickly puts a hand on his stomach as a small reassurance, for the seal is still there. “What has happened in the period I was gone?” Minato asks, and Kakashi looks to the side.

     “Orochimaru defected as you know, and Itachi also did six years after your death. He massacred his entire clan…” Kakashi starts, and Minato looks at his hands. He knows Itachi as a pacifist, that is not like him at all.

 “I still doubt that, for Itachi is, or was a pacifist. He grew up with the tragedies of the Third Shinobi War, after all,” Minato replies, thinking. Kakashi’s eyes narrow, thinking about a possibility. He can go back to that later, there’s more to talk about.

 “Not much happened, besides that,” Kakashi says shortly, looking to the side.

 “What about Naruto?” Minato says quickly, and Kakashi looks guilty and Minato feels a bad premonition.

 “When he turned five Lord Third gave him his own apartment, and he was alone. No one listened to your last wish to see him as a hero… Some just thought him as evil as the Nine-Tailed fox, and some even thought that he was the Nine-Tailed fox. If I got over your… Death quicker, I would’ve done something, but…” Kakashi says, his eyes downcast and full of self-loathing. Minato’s eyes also go downcast, thinking. “I’m sorry, Minato-sensei.”

 “I-It’s fine,” Minato continues, still trying to get his head through the information he was just told. Kakashi looks at Minato again, and Minato struggles to think of something to ask next. Kakashi still looks full of guilt, and Minato keeps thinking. “Where is he now?”

 “He went on a mission with some of his friends to get Sasuke back from Orochimaru’s henchmen,” Kakashi says, before instantly regretting what he said and it’s obvious from his body language. Minato’s eyes narrow, knowing they are most likely the ones from the Chunin exams.

 “OK then,” Minato says, getting out of his hospital bed easily. Kakashi is regretting everything more and more after every second.

 “Minato-sensei, you should stay here and rest—” Kakashi tries to get out, but Minato is already in his normal clothes and out the window. “GOD DAMN IT!”

Why does everything have to go so damn poorly?

>|< >|< >|<

     It’s been over an hour, and Choji hasn’t come back yet from beating the Sound Four Ninja Jirobo, and Shikamaru can’t help but worry for his best friend. Shikamaru suddenly stops, looking at the butterfly going past his face and everything seems to go into slow motion. It can’t be. He can’t have lost, he can’t have died. It didn’t happen. Shikamaru looks behind him, looking incredibly worried. “What happened?” Naruto asked, looking at Shikamaru, confused. Shikamaru turns forward again, an unreadable expression on his face.

 “Nothin’…” Shikamaru responds, obviously not truthfully and they continue running through the trees after Sasuke. Akamaru sniffs the air, slightly deep in thought and barks at Kiba.

     “It’s close,” Kiba says, looking forwards, and Neji activates his Byakugan to look ahead of the group.

 “That’s strange. There hasn’t been one trap set for a while…” Neji says, thinking to himself. “Shikamaru, what do you think?” Neji asks, looking at Shikamaru.

 “We’re being underestimated,” Shikamaru says, with a small but grim smile. “Those guys think the only one following them is that big guy. They don’t want to set a trap on their man.” Shikamaru explains, thinking.

 “How dare they underestimate us!” Naruto cries out, not too loudly of course.

 “It seems you’re right,” Neji says. “We are being completely underestimated. However, this is our chance.” They fall down a story and continue running forward.

 “Yeah… We’ll take them by surprise,” Shikamaru says, forming a plan as they run. Shikamaru transforms into Jirobo and goes on ahead. He eventually catches up with the ones he is pursuing, and they don’t seem to be suspicious of him.

     “That Jirobo is already late,” One of the Sound shinobi say, the one with two heads.

 “No, he’s already here,” Another one of the Sound shinobi say. This one has six arms and is just a bit creepy in Shikamaru’s opinion. Shikamaru jumps up towards them while still in the transformation and runs alongside the other Sound Shinobi.

 “Aw c’mon, what took you so long?” The Sound shinobi with two heads says. Shikamaru quickly thinks up a response.

 “Sorry,” Shikamaru says, still transformed into Jirobo. “It took time to eat the scum’s chakra.”

 “Hey fatso, don’t you dare drag!” The girl says, looking at Shikamaru. “Hurry up and carry that coffin… That’s your job you vulgar swine.” The girl finishes. Shikamaru internally smiles, now is his chance! He doesn’t let any of it show, for it’ll compromise the entire plan. He doesn’t respond to the girl.

 “I know,” Shikamaru responds, thinking. The Sound ninja look at him for a couple seconds too long, and Shikamaru is afraid that he messed up.

 “What Jirobo… You’re awfully easygoing today,” The Sound ninja with six arms says, looking at Shikamaru right in the eye.

 “What do you mean?” Shikamaru says, slightly nervous. It doesn’t show in his voice though. The Sound ninja stop moving, and they look at Shikamaru.

 “I’m just saying that I’m not handing you the coffin,” the Sound ninja with six arms says, smiling. “Because you’re not Jirobo!” Shikamaru internally curses to himself. He was caught! The six-armed Sound ninja throws the coffin over to the girl and she catches it easily. The Sound ninja that threw the coffin laughs, wanting a fight. Shikamaru quickly takes out a kunai in preparation and jumps at the Sound ninja that was left behind. “This time let me do it.” The Sound ninja says, smiling and in a battle stance. He tries to hit the Sound ninja, but his kunai is blocked and so is his punch. “Jirobo always corrects Tayuya’s choice of words,” The Sound ninja says. At least Shikamaru knows the names of one of the Sound ninjas. The ninja starts forming something in his mouth, and Shikamaru feels a little bit apprehensive. His transformation dispels, but he stays there anyway.

     “Heh, I see,” Shikamaru says with a smile. He tries to kick the Sound ninja, but that is blocked as well. The Sound ninja spits out a spider web as a net, and Shikamaru is thrown and stuck on a nearby tree. The Sound ninja chuckles, thinking. Suddenly, Naruto with his shadow clones appears behind the Sound ninja much to his surprise.

     “You!” Naruto yells out, readying a punch. The Sound ninja laughs and kneels slightly, forming the spider silk like substance in his mouth again and shaping it in his hand. It extends into a huge spider web, surrounding Naruto’s clones. Naruto and his clones get stuck in the spider web, and because of how sticky the spider web is he can’t move.

 “Naruto!” Shikamaru yells out, seeing what just happened. As the Sound ninja is in free-fall in the air, Kiba and Akamaru spiral towards him in a jutsu but the Sound ninja uses his spider silk threads to guide himself away in time. Kiba and Akamaru land on the tree, and Akamaru’s beast mimicry that allows him to look like Kiba dispels.

 “I won’t let you get away!” Kiba yells out, looking at the Sound ninja who is currently hanging upside-down.

 “That’s my line,” The Sound ninja says, smiling. “Look at your feet.” Kiba and Akamaru look at their feet, only to see it’s caught in spider web silk.

 “You!” Kiba yells out in anger, but he can’t do anything about it. “It’s too soon for you to think you’ve captured us with a thing like this!”

 “Shut up!” The Sound ninja replies, still smiling. Neji suddenly jumps out from behind the Sound ninja, in a battle stance. But right before Neji hits, the Sound ninja cuts some of his threads so Neji misses him. He quickly makes another spider web, trapping Neji in it.

 “NEJI!” Naruto yells out in despair. The plan failed! Akamaru’s transformation dispels, and he barks sadly.

 “I’m going to cocoon you,” The Sound ninja declares, and then Neji is trapped in a cocoon.

 “Damn!” Naruto says, and he takes out a kunai and tries to cut one of the threads, but he can’t. The stupid thread is too strong. “Damn it! Damn it! What’s with this thread?! It won’t cut!” The Sound ninja starts laughing again, slowly descending onto a tree branch from his spider silk threads.

 “It’s useless,” The Sound ninja says. “My thread is so strong that even if two elephants pulled away it wouldn’t break.” Naruto and his clones struggle in the web, trying to get out. The Sound ninja smirks and thinks up something. “Shadow Clone… Interesting.” He starts forming more spider silk in his mouth, but when he takes it out it’s a matte yellow. He puts some thread on each of his six hands and separates the thread from his mouth. The spider silk quickly hardens, forming weapons. “You’re the first one so it’s like a little entertainment. Now I’ll play a game to see which of you is the real one.” The Sound ninja laughs, readying one of his weapons.

 “What did you say?!” Naruto cries out, looking up at the Sound ninja.

 “First is… You at the end,” The Sound ninja says, throwing one of his weapons at the Naruto the furthest from the center of the web.

 “Naruto!” Shikamaru cries out, incredibly worried. The weapon connects with Naruto’s body, but it’s a clone.

 “It was a clone, huh. Well this one is next!” The Sound ninja says with a smile, throwing another weapon at the Naruto that is now the farthest from the center of the web. The weapon connects once again, and it’s another clone. The Sound ninja starts laughing, finding enjoyment in this. “What a lucky guy. Next, I’ll do two at a time. The odds are two to one.” He throws two of his weapons at the Narutos, and they are both clones. The Sound ninja starts laughing again. “This guy has the greatest luck, but it’s either one or the other now!” He throws the second to last of his weapons at the Narutos, and it’s another clone leaving only one Naruto left in the web. “Turns out he made it to last. Well, it was fun as a game but now it’s game over. Die!” The Sound ninja cries out, throwing his last weapon at the only Naruto left. “The first one is done.” The Sound ninja says, but that Naruto dispels. They were all clones! “What?!” The real Naruto who was behind him, suddenly goes after the Sound ninja with a punch. The Sound ninja makes a move to block, but suddenly there is a popping sound and a cloud of smoke, while Naruto is thrown away from it.

     “What the heck?!” Naruto cries out, who is caught by Neji.

 “Who?!” Kiba cries out, looking at the cloud. The cloud slowly dispels, and all of them focus on the person’s cape.

‘FOURTH HOKAGE’.

Minato is there, one of his signature kunai cutting slightly into the Sound ninja’s arm. “Heh. What’s your name?” The Sound ninja asks, happy for an actual fight. Minato jumps back, smiling.

 “Minato Namikaze… The Fourth Hokage!” Minato says, standing up.  
  


Now this is going to get chaotic.

 


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i just realized that until now i forgot naruto's verbal tic omf im so sorry yall  
> edit: ive been adding naruto's verbal tic throughout the chapters e

     “WHAT?!” Naruto yells out, looking at Minato from a tree trunk. He’s so confused, the kid that was traveling with him was the FOURTH HOKAGE?! This can’t be right, he was a kid!

 “How?!” Neji cries out, and Minato smiles slightly. The Sound ninja is just standing there in shock, and before he can even say anything Minato is in front of the Sound ninja with a Rasengan and screams out in pain as he hits- no, goes through a tree.

 “Orochimaru tried to reanimate me, but this happened instead,” Minato says, looking back at Naruto with a smile.

 “What?! Lord Orochimaru…” The Sound ninja says, as he falls to the ground.

 “Is Choji OK?” Shikamaru asks quickly, and Minato frowns slightly.

 “I do not know, because I teleported here using a seal I made a long time ago,” Minato says. “Considering how mad Kakashi was when I left to help you, he’ll find Choji.” Minato smiles at that last part, and Naruto is just shocked. Naruto didn’t know that anyone could make Kakashi-sensei feel something that isn’t given back with sarcasm! The Sound ninja gets back up, a curse seal all over his body and Minato frowns.

 “Since I’m fighting you, it’s better if I use my first state…” The Sound ninja says, and Neji jumps forward after putting Naruto down.

 “Let me fight him. My Gentle Fist technique is the only thing that can combat his jutsu effectively!” Neji says, looking at the Sound ninja.

 “Alright. Be careful, though,” Minato says, and Shikamaru can’t help but be shocked like the rest of them. Who knew the Fourth Hokage was such a dad figure? Everyone quickly regains their composure and nods in agreement, before they go after Sasuke.

 “I won’t let you get away!” The Sound ninja yells out and spits a web at the group that’s leaving.

 “Here it comes!” Naruto yells out, looking behind him at the web. But right before the encroaching web reaches them, Neji cuts it with his Byakugan activated. The group continues, leaving Neji behind and Minato can’t help but feel a little bit of apprehension. He knows from what Kakashi said that Neji is a genius, but these sound ninjas are basically Orochimaru’s bodyguards and he can’t help but feel at least a LITTLE worried. He feels that he should believe in Naruto, for Naruto knows Neji way better than Minato does. They start going faster, a silence between all of them. Shikamaru is probably trying to figure out what the hell is going on, much to Minato’s amusement.

     “Now it’s become the three—four of us,” Kiba says, quickly adding to the end of his sentence.

 “Don’t worry about such things,” Naruto says with a slight smile. “Both Choji and Neji will catch up right away.” Minato could only hope to have as much enthusiasm as his son, and he reminds him of Kushina in so many ways it’s painful. Well, he is her son after all. “Choji had that trump card, and I’ve fought Neji in the Chunin exam, so I know…” Minato is slightly impressed, knowing the abilities of the Hyuuga clan and wonders how he achieved it. Once again, he wishes he was still alive to see Naruto but now he has his life back. He still doesn’t really understand why, but he’s taking that chance and he isn’t taking it for granted.

 “Know what?” Kiba asks curiously while looking back at Naruto. Shikamaru also looks back at Naruto, thinking.

 “That he’s a true genius… Believe it, dattebayo!” Naruto happily, and Minato smiles slightly realizing that Naruto inherited Kushina’s verbal tic. He’s so similar to her in personality that it’s like he’s looking back at the past. They continue, going faster as the day starts to end and soon the sun starts to set, and the sky turns orange. Akamaru, still in Kiba’s jacket, sniffs the air and barks once.

     “We’re close!” Kiba says, looking back at the rest of the group. Minato nods, thinking. Should he go on ahead? No, it’s better to stay here.

 “There are two enemies left… There are four of us, it’s four against two,” Shikamaru says, forming a plan. “We might be able to do it with one more contact if we do it well.”

 “All right, all right! Let’s do it!” Naruto says, smiling.

 “No! It’s FIVE against two!” Kiba corrects angrily, and Akamaru barks his disapproval for being unaccounted for.

 “Okay, okay! I’m sorry,” Shikamaru says, smiling slightly. “Counting Akamaru, it’s five against two!”

 “Let’s finish it quickly with our new technique next!” Kiba says happily with a big smile, as Akamaru barks in agreement.

 “Say, say, if necessary I’ll do an awesome Shadow Clone, so it’ll be OK, dattebayo!” Naruto says, smiling.

 “That’s reassuring,” Shikamaru says sarcastically, looking back at Naruto. “But my strategy comes first, got it?” He looks forward again, thinking.

 “Y-yeah…” Naruto agrees sheepishly.

 “For that purpose, we have to catch up before the sun sets at any cost,” Shikamaru says.

 “I know, full throttle!” Kiba yells out, looking at Shikamaru then back forward. Minato still thinks this pace is slow, but he doesn’t say anything about it. The sun passes below the mountains, and Kiba grits his teeth in frustration.

     “Damn! We still can’t catch up…” Kiba says angrily.

 “No, this is good enough,” Shikamaru replies. “We’ll maintain this distance and continue pursuit.”

 “W-what do you mean, dattebayo?” Naruto says, confused.

 “I mean we’re delaying the attack until dawn breaks,” Shikamaru says, looking back at Naruto.

 “Get real! We can’t afford such leisure!” Naruto says, frustrated. Minato sighs slightly, a little bit tired of this. Just like Kushina, alright.

 “That’s right! Besides, if we are going to attack anyway isn’t it more advantageous to use the darkness and attack?” Kiba replies, looking back at Shikamaru.

 “The darkness works to our advantage only the moment we launch the attack,” Minato says, explaining. “It would be hard to see and get Sasuke away from them and escape to a safe location in just that one moment.” Shikamaru looks quickly at Minato, and Minato knows Shikamaru probably thought the same thing. Shikamaru’s a pretty good strategist, Minato thought to himself. Naruto grits his teeth in frustration but doesn’t say anything. “If we couldn’t get Sasuke back in that one moment, they’d probably just focus on guarding the coffin. If that happens, it probably wouldn’t go very well to say the least.” Minato looks at Shikamaru, signifying that he can explain from here.

 “On the contrary, for the part where they wouldn’t have to move needlessly, suddenly they get the advantage,” Shikamaru says and Minato nods in agreement. “It’d be a different story if we had Neji’s Byakugan, but…”

 “Hey, come on, aren’t you forgetting Akamaru’s nose and mine as well?” Kiba says in frustration. Akamaru looks at Shikamaru and barks angrily, and Minato closes his eyes and thinks to himself silently. Why can’t these kid s just listen to Shikamaru? He obviously has a plan, and they don’t. He quickly realizes that they probably aren’t used to it because of some conflicting nature from the past, but he keeps that to himself once again.

 “I was sure to include your sense of smell into the calculations!” Shikamaru says, irritated. “Even so, up ahead they have the geographical advantage. Plus…” Shikamaru continues, looking up at the sky where the moon has come out. “If I can’t use my jutsu, it’ll be no use. Even if I seal off their movements with Shadow Possession Jutsu, the effect would be reduced to half if clouds covered up the moon.” Shikamaru explains. “It’s a drag, but there are too many dangers and uncertain elements.” Kiba looks back at Shikamaru, angrily.

 “But—” Kiba starts, but Minato interrupts him, slightly irritated.

 “He’s trying to make sure none of you are killed. Can’t you just listen to him?” Minato says, looking pointedly at Naruto. Knowing how Kushina acts or acted back then Naruto probably would want to do things his way anyway. Kiba and Naruto shut up, and Minato is glad the genin finally shut up about the arguments. Shikamaru looks like he is about to say something, but he doesn’t. This is absolutely exhausting.

 

When will it end?

 


	15. Chapter 15

     It's been a while since Naruto and Kiba have tried to argue with Shikamaru, and Minato notes that with satisfaction. The sun is starting to rise once again, and they start going faster. Well, it seems fast to the genin but to Minato they are going abysmally slow. “Alright. Since the other Sound shinobi don't know that I'm here, I'll use surprise to help separate them from the coffin,” Minato says, looking at Shikamaru. Shikamaru nods, as Minato jumps off-course and continues a small distance away from the rest of the group. They slowly but surely catch up with the Sound shinobi, which only contains two members.

     Naruto, Kiba, and Shikamaru all land on a log behind the Sound shinobi, and both they and the enemy have stopped as Minato watches curiously from the trees. “What were those idiots Jirobo and Kidomaru doing?” the Sound ninja with dark magenta hair says, looking back at the trio. Naruto smiles, holding up a kunai.

 “We caught up!” Naruto replies, smiling for all he's worth. The other Sound ninja stands up, looking at Naruto and Minato notes that none of the enemy shinobi have noticed him yet.

 “Alright! I'll take care of this nice and quick!” the two-headed shinobi says, getting into a battle stance. Minato frowns slightly, waiting for the right opportunity.

 “R-right away?!” Naruto says quickly, a little bit shocked. The Sound ninja nearly reaches Naruto, but Shikamaru and Kiba try to stall and give Naruto time to form a Rasengan.

 “ _MULTIPLE FISTS BARRAGE!_ ” the Sound ninja yells out, and Minato tilts his head to the side slightly. Yelling out jutsu names as you use them? Childish, he wonders how Orochimaru let his underlings get away with that considering who Orochimaru is. Shikamaru and Kiba get struck multiple times as Minato waits there silently, waiting for the right opportunity.

 “ _RASENGAN!_ ” Naruto cries out, about to hit the Sound ninja with it but the Sound ninja simply grabs Naruto's hands. Minato internally sighs, knowing that Naruto probably didn't expect that.

 “There's no point if I catch you before you do it!” the Sound ninja says, smiling insanely. Naruto waits, as Kiba rushes towards the Sound ninja.

 “ _TUNNELING FANG!_ ” Kiba yells out, as he goes straight through Naruto. Naruto disappears in a puff of smoke, taking the Sound ninja back a little bit but even with that bit of surprise he ducks down. However, this lets Kiba aim straight for the other Sound ninja and the coffin.

 “You think you'll just succeed with that?!” the two-headed Sound ninja yells out angrily, looking behind him at Kiba. Minato smiles slightly, knowing that the Sound ninja are underestimating the genin trio. The two-headed Sound ninja jumps towards the coffin, and the other Sound ninja tries to get out of the way but Shikamaru freezes her movement with the _Shadow Possession Jutsu_.

     “ _Shadow Possession Jutsu_ success!” Shikamaru proclaims, as Kiba stops the _Tunneling Fang_ and grabs the coffin. It's nearly time for Minato to step in, he thinks with a smile.

 “TAYUYA! What are you doing idling away?!” the other Sound ninja yells, and Minato can tell they don't have a very happy relationship. It makes sense, knowing that Orochimaru taught them after all.

 “N-no!” Tayuya says as Shikamaru moves forward, causing her to move forward as well.

 “Why are you moving forward?!” the two-headed Sound ninja yells at Tayuya, knowing he can't dodge. Minato quickly senses something, someone moving quickly towards them and frowns. Reinforcements for the Sound ninja? Shikamaru's _Shadow Possession Jutsu_ is dispelled at the correct time, and Tayuya and the two-headed Sound shinobi run into each other as Kiba throws the coffin to Naruto.

 “Here you go!” Kiba says, and Naruto takes it with a smile and they start going back to Konoha. Minato stays behind the trio, thinking. “Shikamaru! Let's get out of here!”

 “They were full of openings just as I thought,” Shikamaru says with a smile. “Having too much ability individually is also a problem...”

 “It went well!” Naruto says, holding the coffin cheerfully. Minato feels slightly apprehensive, thinking to himself silently.

 “Yeah, it went just as calculated!” Shikamaru says, and once again he senses that other ninja approaching them. “Just in terms of teamwork, ours was way better than theirs.”

     Only a couple of minutes later, Minato is lost in thought but quickly pulls himself back to reality. He sees the Sound ninja approaching, and before the Sound ninja even knew what hit them he kicks them off course and goes back to his hiding place alongside the path the genin are taking as the Sound ninja are still flying through the air, much to their confusion. “Damn!” Tayuya says, and Minato looks around. Where is this sense coming from? He freezes quickly, realizing. The bombs that Akamaru set go off, and Minato goes forward to avoid getting blown up. Getting blown up isn't fun, and he was reminded of the Explosion Corps of Iwagakure in particular.

 “Akamaru! Well done!” Kiba says, looking back at Akamaru happily. Akamaru barks again, going after Kiba. Trees consumed by flames start falling, and Minato thinks a little bit of using a Water release jutsu to get rid of it but he decides not to. The two-headed Sound ninja quickly jumps out of the smoke, jumping towards the genin.

 “Messing with me!” the shinobi says, as Akamaru misses a jump and tumbles onto a log. Minato instantly sees the tag, and jumps over to Akamaru and even though he wasn't using his Hiraishin he was too fast to be noted as more than a blur. Akamaru is put back on Kiba's head, and Minato is back in the trees. The tag explodes, and the smoke covers the area and Minato sees Kiba and the Sound ninja go down into the gorge. Damn it! The rest of the genin team freezes for a moment before Minato yells from the tree tops as Tayuya starts charging at the genin team.

     “Shikamaru, Naruto! Above you!” Minato yells, as he quickly gets ready for action. Tayuya stops, recognizing the chakra signature and looks shocked and Minato can't help but worry.

 “Wh-why are you...? Kimimaro...” Tayuya says, looking above Naruto and Shikamaru. Minato quickly teleports to Naruto, grabbing both Naruto and Shikamaru, landing back on a nearby tree much to the Sound shinobi's shock. He puts Naruto and Shikamaru down, looking at Kimimaro.

 “Sorry Naruto, I miscalculated,” Shikamaru says sourly, looking at Kimimaro

 “It's fine. Don't beat yourself up about it,” Minato replies, even though he knew the previous apology wasn't directed towards him. Shikamaru looks towards him in surprise, but quickly gets over it.

 “You were taking too long, Tayuya,” Kimimaro says, looking straight at Tayuya. Tayuya looks frustrated, but quickly hides it. “And what happened to the other three? Being none other than those of the former 'Sound Ninja Five.'...”

 “Why are you... Your body... Your body is no longer...” Tayuya says, struggling to get the words out. Kimimaro looks back at Tayuya again.

 “I'm not moving with flesh anymore. It's mental power,” Kimimaro replies, turning towards the other shinobi.

 “Man, you cheater of death...” Tayuya says, smiling but not in admiration. Kimimaro continues to talk, but Minato ignores him. He quickly forms a plan, and it's better that he does it on the spot. He waits for Kimimaro stop talking, and he thinks in the meantime but his thought process is quickly scrambled by Naruto.

     “You jerk, why are you babbling nonsense?” Naruto says furiously, his fist raised in the air.

“Naruto!” Shikamaru admonishes, thinking that Naruto's attitude could possibly get all of them killed.

“Give back Sasuke!” Naruto shouts, charging at Kimimaro.

But Minato gets there first.

     Minato once again teleports in front of Naruto, throwing him back at Shikamaru and kicks Kimimaro back with a chakra-infused kick. Shikamaru catches Naruto, as Kimimaro looks at Minato curiously. “Who are you?” Kimimaro asks, amused. Minato feels the Killer Intent rolling off of Kimimaro, and laughs internally at Kimimaro thinking that is a good example of K.I.

 “Minato Namikaze,” Minato responds much to the surprise of the Sound ninja. He doesn't let them be too surprised before the K.I Minato is giving off basically causing the air to have more turbulence.

 “But you are supposed to be dead,” Tayuya wavers, frozen at that much K.I. Shikamaru and Naruto aren't much better, though.

 “And now I'm not,” Minato replies shortly. Tayuya and Kimimaro talk for a moment, saying things that Minato can't hear well (He blames being a child for a bit and being dead for twelve years.) and then Tayuya looks at the group as Kimimaro runs off with the coffin.

 “Sasuke... That punk!” Naruto yells out, looking at where Kimimaro had disappeared.

 “Calm down, Naruto,” Shikamaru says, looking at Naruto.

 “How can I calm down?! At this rate, Sasuke will get far away again,” Naruto retorts. Shikamaru thinks to himself for a moment, making a plan.

 “Naruto, listen up. Please move according to the plan I'm going to tell you,” Shikamaru says. Shikamaru tells Naruto the plan, and they look back at Tayuya. “Got it?” Naruto nods, and Minato looks back at Tayuya, the K.I not as strong as before but still there.

 “Come on already, you punks!” Tayuya says, smiling as she takes out a flute.

 “It's three versus one. We have the upper hand,” Shikamaru says, holding a kunai. “It's an opponent we can beat if we team up. Let's go Naruto!”

 “Alright!” Naruto replies happily, standing up.

 “With garbage like you jerks, it doesn't matter how many of you there are!” Tayuya calls out.

 “Don't underestimate our teamwork!” Shikamaru replies as he and Naruto charge forward. “Now! Naruto!” Shikamaru says as Tayuya blocks the blow with her flute. Naruto goes past Tayuya, and Minato follows him quickly but out of sight. Naruto goes forward and looks back, slightly worried about Shikamaru and to Minato's surprise starts using the Kyuubi chakra. When did Naruto learn to use that? Did Jiraiya teach him? Naruto thinks out loud before continuing after Sasuke.

 “Hang in there, Sasuke!”

 


	16. Chapter 16

     Both he and Naruto get to a plain where Kimimaro has stopped at the same time, and Naruto jumps onto the plain. “HOLD IT!” Naruto yells out, landing on the plain along with Minato. Naruto glares at Kimimaro, and Minato simply stands there.

 “Now then, how shall I defeat you?” Kimimaro says, as a white spike seems to poke out of his sleeve. He turns to the two, examining them.

 “What does Orochimaru want to do? Why is he after Sasuke, dattebayo?!” Naruto asks angrily, and Minato looks at the coffin again. If he's quick enough, he can just take it and Naruto and go but the fight Naruto is about to start complicates things.

 “Lord Orochimaru has already obtained the _Immortality Jutsu_...” Kimimaro says, his eyes closing. “A long time is necessary to get every Jutsu and obtain everything in the world.” he continues, his eyes opening again.

 “What does that have to do with Sasuke?!” Naruto replies, furious.

 “It means that Orochimaru wants to have Sasuke as his next body to 'Reanimate',” Minato says, his eyes trailing from Kimimaro back to the coffin.

 “That's... So you're saying that's Sasuke?!” Naruto says, looking at Kimimaro.

“Yes... That's right,” Kimimaro replies, getting into a battle stance.

 “I won't let such a thing happen!” Naruto yells out, a red aura surrounding him as he performs the Shadow Clone jutsu, covering the entire plain with Narutos. Kimimaro looks at the clones, thinking. “I'll never let you have Sasuke!”

 “There's a lot of trash scattered about... With only one worthy opponent in it all,” Kimimaro says, looking from the clones to the Naruto next to Minato. “But after all, trash is trash. It simply needs to be cleaned up.”

 “Shut up!” Naruto replies, the red aura surrounding him again.

 “Come,” Kimimaro says, the white spikes extending from the palms of his hands.

 “I'll crush you!” Naruto says, running at Kimimaro with his clones all at once. Kimimaro quickly dispels a number of clones, and they all stop. That isn't really a good time to stop, Minato thinks to himself.

     “So now perhaps it's time to get serious,” Kimimaro says, standing up. “I'll take care of you all at once.”

 “Such confident words! But those are my lines!” Naruto replies, and Minato uses this time that Naruto distracts Kimimaro to make a small plan. Kimimaro starts dispelling more clones and when Naruto throws some kunai at him, Kimimaro just dodges and the kunai just hits some of Naruto's clones. A clone yells out and charges with his kunai, attacking, but Kimimaro blocks with the white spike again and kicks the clone away as he dodges another clone that attacks him.

 “Behold! _Willow dance!_ ” Kimimaro yells out, getting into another position and then charging forward, dispelling an entire section of clones.

 “YOU!” Naruto yells out, as his clones jump at Kimimaro from every direction but all the clones dispel. “Bones?” Minato frowns, looking at Kimimaro.

 “This is my... Kekkei Genkai,” Kimimaro says, looking at the Narutos. Minato quickly teleports to a clone in the field, throwing a number of his signature kunai that he may or may not have took from wherever Kakashi put them. Kimimaro blocks them with his bones, and the bones go back into his body chillingly. Kimimaro takes his cloak slightly off his shoulder, as he starts taking a long bone out of it. The coffin starts to steam, and Minato looks at it quickly. “It'll be soon...” Kimimaro takes out the bone, resembling a sword and points it at one of the clones. Naruto throws some shuriken, but it's only blocked by Kimimaro as Minato quickly sets the area with his Hiraishin. “It's futile, this isn't ordinary bone. The highest density bone is hard as steel.”

     “So what?! I'll break that bone!” Naruto yells out, looking at Kimimaro. Minato throws one more of his kunai at Kimimaro, and Kimimaro blocks it once again.

 “Where are you aiming?” Kimimaro asks Minato, just as Minato teleports to one of his Hiraishin and punches Kimimaro in the face as he teleports back to another Hiraishin and punches Kimimaro again. Minato teleports to one of Naruto's clones again, watching. “I have five dances... I'll show you the Camellia Dance next.”

 “I'll crush you!” Naruto yells out, but still waiting.

 “You shouldn't say things you can't even do,” Kimimaro replies, standing up.

 “Shut up!” Naruto says, charging at Kimimaro with his clones and throwing shuriken at Kimimaro. Kimimaro simply blocks them with his bone, and when the shuriken hit the ground they snap in half. “What?!”

 “I told you this bone is harder than steel,” Kimimaro says, looking at Naruto. “You should have a taste with it with your own body.” Kimimaro charges forward again as the Naruto clones charge at Kimimaro at the same time. Kimimaro dispels some clones, and Naruto stops once again.

 “Damn it!” Naruto says, trying to think up a plan. Minato notes that Kimimaro is now separated from the coffin and contemplates taking it and running, but he doesn't know which clone is actually Naruto.

 “ _Dance of the Camellia!_ ” Kimimaro says, charging forward and dispelling more clones. Minato quickly teleports to the Hiraishin, getting a couple more hits in.

     More clones charge at Kimimaro only to get dispelled, and the coffin steams even more until there is only five clones left. “Damn it!” Naruto yells again, the clones charging at Kimimaro only for all of them to be dispelled.

 “It's about time...” Kimimaro says, his eyes closing. “I've been eagerly waiting.” The steam from the coffin starts to increase, and Minato looks at it quickly. “Lord Orochimaru's ambition... The first step...” The seal on the coffin breaks, as Naruto's eyes widen and the coffin then completely explodes with a flash. The smoke fades, and Sasuke is there with darker skin and silver-gray hair. It darkens to his original color, as his skin turns orange and the curse mark fades and Sasuke looks at his hands. Naruto's Kyuubi chakra disappears, as he looks at Sasuke and Minato looks from Kimimaro to Sasuke.

 “Sasuke...” Naruto says, looking at Sasuke. Naruto starts laughing a little bit, smiling and looking at Sasuke. “Sasuke! What're you doing with these guys, dattebayo? Come on! We're going home now!” Naruto says, as Sasuke laughs a little. “Sasuke? Hey...” Naruto continues, looking worried. “Hey... We're going home. Everyone's worried about you, dattebayo.” Naruto says, looking at Sasuke. “So...” Sasuke starts laughing, and Minato's eyes narrow. “SASUKE!” Naruto yells at Sasuke, but Minato knows it isn't going to do much. “You can hear my voice, can't you?!” Sasuke leaps away, and Minato immediately knows he's heading towards Orochimaru. “HEY!”

“It's futile...” Kimimaro says, suddenly behind Naruto and about to hit him. “Die!”

But Kimimaro never gets the chance.

     Lee kicks Kimimaro away, smiling. “Who're you?” Kimimaro asks, looking at Lee.

 “The rejuvenated...” Lee says, getting into position. “Konoha's Handsome Devil... Rock Lee!”

 


	17. Chapter 17

     “B-Bushy Brows?” Naruto says hesitantly, looking at Lee with surprise. “Bushy Brows! What about you're body?”  
“More importantly Naruto, go get Sasuke. Also, Yondaime-sama...” Lee says, looking at Minato. “Kakashi-sensei is furious and is going after you.” Minato looks slightly surprised, but then isn't anymore. It is Kakashi after all.

“But... You...” Naruto starts, only to get interrupted by Lee.

“Please leave this person to me!” Lee says, looking directly at Kimimaro.

“Bushy Brows, be careful! He uses his own bones to attack,” Naruto says.

“Bones, you say...?” Lee replies, looking at the bone sword.

“He's crazy strong, dattebayo...” Naruto responds, as Kimimaro gets ready to attack.

“What're you doing?! Please go, quickly!” Lee says, giving Naruto a thumbs up. “Naruto... You also promised Sakura with the 'nice-guy pose', right?” Lee continues, as Naruto instantly remembers something. “This person... I'll beat him! I promise!” Lee finishes, still looking at Kimimaro.

“Right!” Naruto says, turning to go after Sasuke.

“I won't let you!” Kimimaro says, going after Naruto. “Die!” Kimimaro tries to attack Naruto, but it only gets blocked by Lee. Minato nods, and both he and Naruto go after Sasuke.

“Please don't ignore me!” Lee says, looking up at Kimimaro.

     Minato and Naruto go after Sasuke, and Sasuke is a little bit far ahead but they continue anyway. “SASUKE!” Naruto yells out, still going after Sasuke. Minato notes that they are going close to the Valley of the End, and he thinks that it's pretty ironic. Minato and Naruto finally catch sigh of Sasuke who is running on the ground, and he goes into a cave when he reaches the Valley of the End. Naruto and Minato both go into the cave, going after Sasuke. “SASUKE! You're in here aren't you?! At least answer me!” Naruto yells out, as he walks forward. “What's gotten into you?” They continue walking forward, and a yellow light envelops them.

     Both Naruto and Minato stop, and Minato realizes they are both seeing something different as the light solidifies into an image. Minato sees himself during the Kyuubi attack, trying to protect the village. How he manages to, but how it seems all in vain because he left Naruto all alone and couldn't save Kushina. It plays over and over, showing the hopeless fighting in the Shinigami's stomach that seems to go on forever. Both Naruto and Minato are released from the image, as Naruto trips forward then gets up and runs after Sasuke. “Come back, Sasuke! Everyone is worried about you!” Naruto yells out, still going forward. “Damn... I can't see anything!” Naruto says, but they both see a light they run after, and finally get out of the cave. “I'll get Sasuke back no matter what!” Naruto continues. “SASUKE!”

     They walk out of the cave, by the waterfall in the valley. Sasuke stops, standing on one of the statue's heads as Naruto and Minato stand on the other. “SASUKE!” Naruto yells out, as Minato looks at Sasuke silently. “Are you going to run away from me?!” Naruto says, as Sasuke starts walking away. At those words, Sasuke immediately stops and turns around with part of a curse mark covering his face and his left eye gold and black.

 “Yo... Loser,” Sasuke says, looking at Naruto. “It's you this time, huh?” Naruto frowns, looking at Sasuke. “I also told this to Sakura, but... Don't mind me anymore.” Naruto looks angry, and Minato's eyes narrow. This doesn't look good. Sasuke chuckles slightly. “What's with that face?”

 “Why did you become like this?!” Naruto yells out, looking at Sasuke furiously. “YOU!”

 “When did whatever happens to me have anything to do with you?” Sasuke asks with a straight face. Naruto looks shocked, and Minato frowns slightly. “I have my own way. No matter who it is, nobody has the right to tell me what to do.” Naruto starts looking even more angry, and Minato doesn't respond to that for the moment. “I will tell you the truth. I'm done fooling around with you guys of the Leaf. Go home.” Minato instantly knows that Sasuke hit one of Naruto's nerves from the expression on Naruto's face, and his eyes narrow. Naruto face softens slightly, remembering something.

     “Everyone risked their lives to come after you, you know!” Naruto says, starting to get angry and upset again.

 “Good job for them,” Sasuke replies blandly, and Minato doesn't like it one bit. Sasuke doesn't even seem to care about the other genin who came after him just to get him back. Sasuke turns around once again, making a motion as if he's going to leave and starts walking away then stops again as soon as Naruto jumps after him.

 “BLONDIE! Don't help me, this is my fight!” Naruto yells at Minato who was just about to help Naruto, but then stops. Blondie? He hasn't been called that since he married Kushina.

 “You are also blond, but sure,” Minato says, stepping away from the fight. Naruto tackles Sasuke to the ground, both of them sliding a little and punches Sasuke in the face.

     “How do you take your comrades of the Leaf?!” Naruto yells in Sasuke's face angrily.

 “Did I become stronger from staying with those so-called comrades?” Sasuke says, blankly. “I'm going to where Orochimaru is.” Minato frowns, and Naruto grabs the collar of Sasuke's shirt and yanks him up while glaring in Sasuke's face.

 “Orochimaru is the person who killed the Third Hokage and tried to crush Konoha! Do you really think he'll give power freely?!” Naruto yells out, not wanting Sasuke to go after Orochimaru for power. “He just wants your body as a vessel! You might not come back. You might get killed! You think I'd easily let you go to such a place?!” Sasuke doesn't reply, and Minato watches silently.

 “That doesn't matter to me,” Sasuke replies silently, looking up at Naruto with a blank look. “If my goal is accomplished, that is all that matters. If you intend to get in the way...” Sasuke continues. “Then it can't be helped...” Sasuke grabs Naruto, and Minato's eyes narrow.

 “You're not gonna be able to! I'll take you back even by force!” Naruto yells at Sasuke, frustrated. Sasuke starts laughing, and Naruto looks shocked. “Why are you laughing, dattebayo?!”

 “You were laughing at that time too,” Sasuke says, and Naruto remembers something as Minato frowns. “That time you wanted to fight me, right? You were thrilled, weren't you?”

 “That was at first!” Naruto says angrily. “But you were different. That was... That was... That was not the kind of fight I wanted. Even now... It's not...”

 “I don't care about your circumstances,” Sasuke replies, forcing Naruto away from him and lifting him up and standing up at the same time. Naruto struggles to get free, but can't. He doesn't give up, though. Sasuke suddenly let's go of him and with a smile, punches Naruto in the stomach and Naruto coughs out blood and lands in the water.

 “NARUTO!” Minato yells out, worried but stays there because Naruto doesn't want him to fight. This is Naruto's battle, not his.

     Naruto's body is like a skipping stone on the water, and Minato can't do anything about it because Naruto wants to fight alone. This of course infuriates him, but he respects what Naruto said. Sasuke smiles while looking at his hand, but suddenly winces and looks at his shoulder. Looks like that's where the curse mark is. The curse mark recedes, and Sasuke's left eye returns to normal. “So this is the power that guy was talking about...” Sasuke says, and Minato frowns. “Furthermore, the power is growing into my body. “If it's like that now, if I release the curse mark... I wonder how much power...” Sasuke says, laughing to himself as Naruto sinks in the water. This isn't good.

 

But Minato will always respect Naruto's wishes, and especially this one.

 


	18. Chapter 18

     After a couple of minutes, Naruto emerges from under the water and stands on it, glaring at Sasuke. “WAKE UP ALREADY, DATTEBAYO!” Naruto yells out at Sasuke, running at him. He jumps at Sasuke to punch him, and Sasuke jumps down to meet him but Naruto misses his punch and Sasuke kicks him out of the air and takes his tool pouch as Naruto falls into the water again.

 “I awakened long ago...” Sasuke says, looking at the spot where Naruto fell into the water. “From my idiotic self who dreams about a lax, peaceful future... Hanging out with comrades... That's why I left the village!” Naruto gets out of the water, staring at Sasuke. “That's why I sought power! My dream is not in the future, my dream is in the past. That's the only place it exists.” Naruto stands up once again, and glares at Sasuke and takes out a shuriken only for Sasuke to dodge it and throw a kunai back which Naruto dodges and goes behind a rock. Sasuke takes out two more kunai, throwing them only for them to hit each other and change trajectories. Both hit Naruto, but that Naruto was a clone. Sasuke quickly attaches wire to some weapons as soon as Naruto jumps behind him, and Naruto gets stuck to the rock as the weapons miss him and go around the rock.

     “Sasuke... You really are...” Naruto says, struggling against the wire.

 “I told you...” Sasuke replies. “I don't need a future with you guys anymore.” Naruto's eyes narrow, then suddenly widen as Sasuke starts to prepare a Fire release jutsu. Minato wants to do something, but with all his will he stands there not going in between the two rivals. Sasuke releases the Fire release jutsu, and Naruto gets hit by it. Suddenly, the jutsu goes straight back towards Sasuke much to both he and Minato's surprise.

 “SASUKE!” Naruto yells out, jumping right at Sasuke as he punches him in the face. Naruto pauses for a moment, before his eyes narrow. “You jerk!” He punches Sasuke again, then again and again but seems to pause every once and a while.

 “Is this the best you got?” Sasuke says, blood on the stones. “If this is all you got, I still don't need to use that...”

 “What?” Naruto says, eyes widening.

 “You haven't realized it? I haven't used my _Sharingan_ ,” Sasuke says, looking at Naruto gleefully.

 “DON'T MOCK ME!” Naruto yells out, trying to punch Sasuke again but he blocks it and forces his hand back.

 “You don't have enough strength or desire...” Sasuke starts, his eyes closed. “If I kept playing comrade with you guys, I wouldn't be able to get this much power!” Sasuke says, his eyes opening as he throws Naruto off the statue and kicks him into the ground. Sasuke smiles, not facing Naruto as he throws the pouch back at Naruto. “That's right... I need both power and hatred to catch up to him.” Naruto gets out of the crater he was in, looking at Sasuke angrily. “With this you have woken up, right?” Naruto puts his pouch back on, glaring at Sasuke. “We had a hindrance back at that time... But it won't be like that this time.” Sasuke's eyes narrow, smiling. “I'll show you the true power of the _Sharingan._ ” Minato knows that Sasuke doesn't actually know the true power of the _Sharingan_ considering both of his eyes only have two tomoe, but he keeps that to himself.

     “Fine... Then I'll go all out too!” Naruto says, smiling. “You take a good look with your _Sharingan_... At my Way of the Ninja!!” Sasuke smiles, his eyes closing. “ _Shadow Clone Jutsu_!” Naruto says, summoning ten clones as Sasuke opens his eyes and dashes towards him.

 “You can't beat me by just pointlessly increasing the number!” Sasuke yells out, dispelling all the clones.

 “You little—” Naruto says, jumping at Sasuke but getting knocked away.

 “I can spot the real body in one shot with my _Sharingan_ ,” Sasuke says, walking front of Naruto with a smile. “I deliberately went along with your game... I won't go easy on you now!” Sasuke grabs Naruto's other arm firmly, smiling then punches Naruto in the face and kicks him away and casts another Fire release jutsu at the falling Naruto. The jutsu goes through the trees before disappearing, and Sasuke looks to the side. “You're not going to tell me this is the best you can do, are you? You boast about your Way of the Ninja and this is all you've got?” Naruto is actually in the opposite direction of where Sasuke is looking, recovering. He stands up, getting out from behind the tree and Sasuke looks at him. “Are you still thinking that I'm a member of your comrade game? If that's the case...” Sasuke closes his eyes, smiling. “... A hopeless fool!” Sasuke charges at Naruto, punching Naruto. Naruto flips onto a tree, jumping away. “Stop wasting my time! Give me all you've got, you number one hyperactive knucklehead ninja!” Sasuke yells out, trying to punch Naruto. Sasuke nearly hits once, but Naruto blocks. He punches a little more before kicking Naruto out of the air, and punches Naruto in the stomach again as Naruto coughs out blood. Naruto falls into the water, and Minato can't help but want to interrupt it but he respects Naruto's wishes.

     Sasuke looks at the spot where Naruto fell into the water blankly, waiting. After a couple of minutes Naruto resurfaces once again, wiping some blood away from his mouth and standing up. “Don't you consider me your comrade any longer? Don't all the things we did together as Team 7 mean anything to you, dattebayo?” Naruto says, looking at Sasuke once again.

 “No. It wasn't meaningless,” Sasuke says, his eyes closed again. “To me you became my closest friend.” Sasuke opens his eyes, staring at Naruto.

 “We've become friends?” Naruto repeats, slightly hopeful. “Then why?!”

 “All the more reason why,” Sasuke replies. “There's meaning into taking you down.”

 “I don't fully understand, but...” Naruto says, his hands trembling. “I understand that you want to fight me with your everything, Sasuke!” They both jump at each other again, and Minato sits down for the moment. This is going to take a while. As they go down, they try to punch each other but they both catch each others punches.

     “I already said this earlier, but...” Sasuke starts, smiling. “In truth, you were waiting for this too, weren't you? Neither Kakashi or Sakura are present now, so there's nobody to stop us like that time before.”

 “You!” Naruto yells out, twisting around as Sasuke takes a kunai out of Naruto's tool pouch.

 “This time we are going to settle this for real!” Sasuke yells out, falling down towards the water. “I will take you down!” Sasuke throws the kunai at Naruto, and as soon as Naruto deflects it with a shuriken Sasuke goes back to Naruto and kicks him off the statue's side and activates _Chidori_. Naruto lands on the water sluggishly, and looks up at Sasuke and forms a Rasengan.

 “Same here! I'm going to clobber you, and take you back home even if I have to drag you!” Naruto replies angrily, and they charge at each other with both of the most powerful jutsu in their arsenal. As soon as the two jutsu meet, and the jutsus explode in a wave of chakra that makes the water bulge out and go everywhere and knock the two shinobi back as they sink in the water. Sasuke rises up and tries to recover on the water as Naruto floats up, looking like he is about to pass out as he looks up at the sky sadly then looks at Sasuke. Naruto gets up, looking incredibly upset and Minato knows Sasuke is going to use that as an advantage.

     The curse mark spreads over Sasuke's body, and Sasuke smiles. “Did you know, Naruto... Top-class shinobi should be able to read each others hearts with a exchange of blows, even without saying a single word,” Sasuke says, still smiling. “You're naive, Naruto. How about it? Were you really able to read inside this heart of mine?” Sasuke yells out with a grin, standing up as Naruto starts to get more and more upset by the minute and Sasuke casts another Fire release jutsu that Naruto dodges, but Sasuke hits Naruto in the air as Naruto glares at Sasuke. As soon as Naruto falls, Sasuke catches him and starts _Chidori_ again. Naruto opens his eyes as he glares at Sasuke, as a red aura starts to surround Naruto with his teeth and nails lengthening and his eyes turning red with slits. “It's too late now... Naruto!” Sasuke yells out, hitting Naruto with _Chidori_ but Naruto diverted Sasuke's arm with his left hand, the Kyuubi chakra gone. “You managed to divert it with your left hand...” Sasuke's curse mark recedes, thinking. “But it was meaningless. You won't be able to use any hand sign or that jutsu from before anymore,” Sasuke continues, deactivating _Chidori_ as a huge hole in Naruto is seen. Minato was just about to do something as Sasuke tries to choke Naruto, but suddenly the Kyuubi chakra is back and Naruto restrains Sasuke's arm, glaring and holding Sasuke's arm with so much strength. Sasuke jumps back, infuriated that Naruto can still attack. The water around them starts to rush away from the force of the Kyuubi chakra, and Minato just sits there, not knowing what to do and he notices that Sasuke suddenly looks shocked. Minato infers from this that because of Sasuke's _Sharingan_ , he can see an image of the Kyuubi right behind Naruto as Naruto's wound fully heals. Naruto raises his head and looks at Sasuke, furious and Sasuke tries to regain his composure.

 “Sasuke! I'm not going to let Orochimaru take you away, dattebayo!” Naruto yells out, absolutely furious. “I will stop you even if I have to break every bone in your arms and legs!”

 


	19. Chapter 19

     There is a chakra explosion, and water surrounds Naruto and quickly disperses. “What the heck are you?” Sasuke asks, angry.

 “Your friend!” Naruto replies, also angry. “That's why I'm telling you I'm not going to let the likes of Orochimaru get you! I'm telling you that I'll stop you even if it means breaking every bone in your arms and legs!” Naruto pulls a punch, and just the force causes the water to part and Sasuke to be knocked back, and Naruto charges at Sasuke with a flurry of punches, then a kick to the chin that sends Sasuke over fifty feet away, and right after Sasuke gets up Naruto is already above him and knocks him down into the water with such force that there is a hole in the water for a moment. Sasuke quickly gets out and tries to run, but Naruto intercepts him and knocks him back into the water. Sasuke once again tries to recover, but Naruto starts punching him again. Sasuke dodges a few, but then falls into the water again when he gets kicked. Naruto jumps off the wall towards Sasuke, and Sasuke casts a Fire release jutsu only for Naruto to literally just yell at it, causing the jutsu to disperse and cause waves in the water. Naruto falls right on Sasuke, plunging them both in the water. Minato waits, incredibly concerned but still listens to what Naruto said. If Kyuubi gets out of control or they are actually about to kill each other, he'll intervene.

     Sasuke and Naruto jump out of the water at the same time, but Naruto kicks Sasuke and throws him into the wall. Naruto walks up to him, and grabs Sasuke's shirt. “Come on! Wake up already! If you don't come to your senses, I'll have to break your bones so you can't move then I'll take you home that way, Sasuke!” Naruto says, looking at a very exhausted Sasuke in the eyes.

 “Shut up... What the heck do you, who has neither parents or brothers think you understand?” Sasuke says, and Naruto looks injured by the words. Minato feels a storm of guilt, if only that masked man didn't show up. Then this wouldn't have happened. A lot of things wouldn't have happened. “What makes you think that you who's been all alone from the start can understand anything about me?! It's because I have ties that I feel this agony, how could you possibly understand what it feels to lose all of that?!” Sasuke yells out, forcing Naruto away and jumping at him trying to throw him back into the water as all the tools slip out of Naruto's tool pouch. Naruto and Sasuke jump onto two standing logs, looking at each other.

 “It's true that I can't understand how it feels to have parents or brothers...” Naruto replies, looking at Sasuke. “However... When I'm with Iruka-sensei I imagine that is how it feels to have a dad... When I'm with you, I wonder if having a brother feels something like that...”

 “Why is it, Naruto?... Why is that you go to this extent for me?” Sasuke says silently, looking at the water.

 “For me it's a tie I'm finally able to have!” Naruto replies, looking at Sasuke again, shocking Sasuke slightly and causing him to look up at Naruto.

     Sasuke smiles slightly, taking out his Leaf hitae. “It's already too late Naruto, it's already too late,” Sasuke says, standing up and putting it on. “I can't go back anymore.” The log Sasuke is on splits, and Sasuke takes one of the chunks of wood to split the log Naruto is on, and Minato sees the third tomoe of Sasuke's _Sharingan_ appear. “Come, Naruto! In that case I'll have to cut that tie.” Sasuke gets into a battle position as Naruto stands up, his eyes closed.

 “Cut, huh?” Naruto says, opening his eyes. “Then why wear the hitae now?” Naruto looks at the hitae, frowning slightly.

 “I'll acknowledge you... You're strong,” Sasuke says, smiling. “And the reason for that is that you're the one who knows the pain of solitude as I do. And that pain makes people get stronger. For that very reason, by cutting the tie I will be able to obtain even greater strength! I will fight you on equal terms. However, you won't be able to inflict a scratch on my forehead,” Sasuke says, pointing at his hitae. “That's something that won't change in the least.”

 “It seems that whatever I say won't have any effect anymore, huh?” Naruto says, frowning. “Sasuke...”

 “I'm done talking. From here on, it's only fighting! Come!” Sasuke replies, smiling. Naruto charges at Sasuke, going so fast that the water parts slightly and when Sasuke throws a board at Naruto it bursts into flames. Naruto tries to punch and kick Sasuke, but using his newly evolved _Sharingan_ Sasuke dodges it all. Sasuke jumps on the side of the cliff as Naruto goes after him, and dodges Naruto's punch and continues blocking before kicking Naruto off. Naruto lands on the cliff, frowning angrily. Naruto quickly goes after Sasuke, going from side to side and trying to hit him but misses and Sasuke gets a few punches in and Naruto gets knocked down. Naruto gets up and charges after Sasuke with a punch, only for Sasuke to punch Naruto in the face and knock him into the water. Sasuke stands on the water where Naruto fell, waiting and then suddenly Naruto with some clones bursts out of the water and tries to punch Sasuke but they all miss and dispel. Sasuke quickly realizes that Naruto grabbed his legs after a little bit, and Sasuke starts getting pulled into the water.

     “SASUKE!” Naruto yells out, an entire tower of clones emerging and spinning Sasuke around until he hits the top of the cliff only for Sasuke to cast another Fire release jutsu and dispel the whole tower of clones with Naruto right in front of him, the fire gone. Sasuke looks absolutely terrified, and Minato can't blame him. “Sasuke...”

 “It's too late, Naruto...” Sasuke says, still terrified before angrily getting up and grabbing Naruto. “It's too late, Naruto!” Sasuke throws Naruto away, jumping after him and knocking him into the rock as Naruto slips out and into the water. Sasuke tries to walk away, but falls down coughing and Minato realizes the sun is starting to set. This has taken a while, and the time seemed to pass like the water going through the valley.

     Sasuke quickly looks to Naruto, and Minato as well feels a bad premonition. He sees the red chakra engulf Naruto, but it's more like a cloak and Minato is simply frozen as it starts to rain. Sasuke starts to walk towards Naruto, a little bit more terrified. “What's going on?” Sasuke asks himself, looking at the red chakra that seems to boil. Naruto gets up, so fast and since Sasuke is still surprised, punches him right in the face and Sasuke is knocked back again and Naruto starts to shake, and yells out, getting on all fours with a red chakra cloak that seems to take the a slight fox form and the water steams under his hands. Naruto quickly moves his arms, causing a huge wave of water to go at Sasuke, then charges at Sasuke and knocks him back even more. Sasuke gets up, examining Naruto with complete shock and a little bit of terror.

     “Now I understand!” Sasuke says, running after Naruto. Naruto goes forward, dodging the Fire release jutsus that Sasuke sends after him and jumps at Sasuke as he releases another Fire jutsu that doesn't do any effect. Sasuke waits for a moment, thinking that if he attacks from a longer range he'll be safe, but a chakra claw extends from Naruto's hand and goes after Sasuke that Sasuke somehow manages to dodge. Sasuke lands on the water again, and suddenly a storm of wind goes around him and he gets hit multiple times as he runs away. Naruto uses the tail of the chakra cloak to give him some momentum before slinging himself after Sasuke and punching the water in front of him with a chakra claw, which sends water everywhere. Another chakra claw grabs Sasuke, and sends him into a wall which causes it to crumble. Sasuke gets up, only to see an absolutely enormous chakra claw emerge and go after him that is accurate size to the actual Kyuubi. Sasuke somehow manages to get out of the way, before hitting a wall and turning around and sitting down while activating his curse mark again. A chakra claw emerges from underground to grab Sasuke, and Naruto pulls Sasuke towards him to punch Sasuke in the face, causing him to go flying and back into the wall.

     “Damn it, give me a break...” Sasuke says, trying to get up. “If I get tainted by this power, I don't even know what will happen to me in the end...” Sasuke says, more to himself. “But it can't be helped, can it, Naruto?” The curse mark fully envelops Sasuke, and Minato watches as Sasuke hair turns lighter and longer, his skin darker and his sclera black. “However... I am even more special than you.” Minato can't help but frown. Sasuke takes that as being special? In that case, Naruto is still more special than Sasuke but Minato is disappointed in Sasuke for taking it like this. Naruto charges at Sasuke and sends him into a wall, making him crash into one of the statues.

 “That power you have seems to have risks of its own too, huh?” Sasuke says, smiling widely. “Oh yeah... I said no more talking. Let's bring this to a close, shall we?” Sasuke and Naruto form _Chidori_ and _Rasengan_ , and they jump and charge at each other.

 “ _CHIDORI/RASENGAN_!”

 


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy 20th chapter lol also i think i wrote this badly  
> very badly  
> oh well

     They both jump at each other, and Minato suddenly teleports between them, and Minato knows that Kakashi probably already did this once, throws them both into the statue right before. Minato gets touched by both the _Chidori_ and the _Rasengan_ slightly, causing him to have a new wound on either side of his body, but they aren't serious. He stands up, looking at the two of them. “Sasuke. You still have family left,” Minato says, his arms crossed and not happy in the slightest.

 “If you're saying my team you are saying complete bullsh—” Sasuke starts, but Minato interrupts him.

 “Mikoto made me your godfather, idiot,” Minato says, eyes closed and frowning. Naruto is knocked out from the blast, and Sasuke's curse seal disappears and looks at Minato like he wants to believe but doesn't look like it's true.

 “What?” Sasuke says, staring at Minato.

 “Considering how great friends my wife and your mother were, she made me and my wife Kushina your godmother and godfather respectively,” Minato says slowly, opening his eyes again.

 “What about the seal?” Sasuke says, incredibly confused. Minato can't blame him, Minato seemed like some random guy in Sasuke's eyes and then he just said he was Sasuke's godfather so there had to be at least some confusion.

 “They don't call me a seal master for nothing,” Minato replies. He senses Kakashi at the other side of the river, just kinda standing there completely shocked.

 “Uh. What about Itachi?” Sasuke says, still completely shocked.

 “We'll deal with that later, because I have a couple suspicions about that,” Minato says shortly. “Now are you coming home or not?” Sasuke can't really say anything because he passes out from exhaustion right there, and probably shock too. Minato sighs, and walks over to Naruto who's chakra cloak has disappeared and picks him up as soon as Kakashi shows up beside him.

     “You're serious, right?” Kakashi says, also shocked.

 “Why wouldn't I be?” Minato replies, slightly confused. Kakashi goes over and picks up Sasuke, and Pakkun disappears. “Alright, let's go back to the village.”

>|<          >|<          >|<

     “WHAT?!” Tsunade yells at Minato who just got back from putting Naruto and Sasuke in the hospital. “You RAN out of the hospital, TELEPORTED to Naruto, then proceeded to dismantle Orochimaru's plans for the next three years just by making Sasuke not go to him by saying with complete truth you were his godfather.”

 “I am though—” Minato starts, before getting interrupted by Tsunade.

 “I'm surprised he believed you on the spot,” Tsunade says grumpily, not because Sasuke believed him but because Minato got out of the hospital when he wasn't supposed to. “Can you at least take the curse mark off?”

 “Of course,” Minato says, slightly looking at the ground. It's been years since he's been scolded like this.

 “THEN GO DO IT!” Tsunade yells out, causing Minato to jump slightly. Oh Kami, this is terrifying.

 “Alright then,” Minato says, getting out of there as fast as humanly possible.

     Minato arrives at the hospital just to see Kakashi, and hesitates for a moment because he doesn't want to get yelled at again. “You aren't going to yell at me like Tsunade did, are you?” Minato asks slowly, and Kakashi looks at him for a moment.

 “Thanks for giving me the suggestion, I will not follow throw with it,” Kakashi replies and Minato slightly regrets saying what he said previously.

 “Alright. Is Sasuke awake? I have to remove the curse mark,” Minato says, going inside the hospital with Kakashi.

 “No, follow me,” Kakashi replies, and they go to Sasuke's room. Minato thinks slightly, and looks at Kakashi again.

 “Got an empty room I can use?” Minato asks Kakashi as he thinks to himself.

 “Yup,” Kakashi says as he picks up Sasuke once again. They walk out of the room down the hallways of the hospital to an emergency care room, and even though it isn't really emergency care it's big enough for a seal removal. Minato walks in the middle of the room and cuts his finger with a kunai, and starts drawing the seal with a spiral in the center, the typical start of an Uzumaki clan seal.

     “Alright, put Sasuke in the middle of the spiral,” Minato says to Kakashi as he continues drawing the seal. Kakashi nods and puts Sasuke down in the middle of the spiral, and Minato continues drawing out the seal. “This might take a while. You can go outside the room now, Kakashi. I'll tell you when it's done.” Kakashi hesitates for a moment, but goes outside anyway. After at least ten minutes, Minato finally finishes drawing the seal and starts building chakra. He knows this will take a lot of chakra knowing that Orochimaru put the curse seal here, and curse seals already take a lot of chakra to remove anyway. He finishes building chakra and activates the seal. _Sealing Jutsu: Uzumaki Seal Removal!_ Minato already starts to feel exhausted, and as soon as the seal is removed he feels right about to pass out. Amazing. “Alright Kakashi, you can come in now.” Kakashi walks in, and Minato smiles at him. “It was a success.”

Then he passes out, much to Kakashi's surprise.

Amazing.

 


End file.
